-------- Original Message --------
853
NOUS41 KWBC 301739
PNSWSH
Public Information Notice
National Weather Service Headquarters Washington DC
140 PM EDT WED May 30 2012
To: Subscribers:
-Family of Services
-NOAA Weather Wire Service
-Emergency Managers Weather Information Network
-NOAAPORT
Other NWS partners and NWS employees
From: Michael J. Szkil
Chief, Awareness Branch
Performance and Awareness Division
Office of Climate, Water, and Weather Services
Subject: Critical Warnings Coming to Wireless Emergency Alerts
Starting today, NWS warnings, watches, advisories, and special
statements will be pushed to the Federal Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA) Integrated Public Alerts and Warning System
(IPAWS), in Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) version 1.2 format.
CAP is an industry standard for the exchange of emergency alert
information.
On the week of June 18, 2012, FEMA plans to enable the capability
for NWS warnings to pass through to the Commercial Mobile Alert
System (CMAS), also known as the Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA).
NWS CAP messages will be formatted to trigger a warning
notification on WEA-capable devices for the following NWS warning
types:
- Tsunami Warnings
- Tornado Warnings
- Flash Flood Warnings
- Hurricane and Typhoon Warnings
- Extreme Wind Warnings
- Blizzard and Ice Storm Warnings
- Dust Storm Warnings
The NWS push of CAP to IPAWS is an initial capability.
Modifications and improvements are currently planned for the
summer of 2012 to maximize performance and reliability. Plans
also include enabling NWS CAP messages to pass through IPAWS to
the Emergency Alert System (EAS) in late summer 2012.
For information about IPAWS, please visit
http://www.fema.gov/emergency/ipaws/
Wireless carriers began rolling out the WEA service across the
nation on April 7, 2012. All major wireless carriers and
hundreds of smaller carriers are taking part in WEA on a
voluntary basis. For more information about WEA and a list of
participating carriers, see
http://fema.gov/emergency/ipaws/cmas.shtm
For information about EAS, please visit
http://www.fema.gov/emergency/ipaws/eas_info.shtm
If you have any questions or comments about NWS participation in
IPAWS, please contact:
Mike Gerber
Emerging Dissemination Technologies Program Lead
NOAA/National Weather Service
Office of Climate, Water, and Weather Services
Silver Spring, MD
301-713-0090 x170
Mike.Gerber@xxxxxxxx
National Public Information Notices are online at:
http://www.weather.gov/os/notif.htm
$$