How to activate your Live Storm and Heavy Rain Alerts
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⚠️ Live Storm & Rain Alerts Now on Windy
We’ve launched real-time alerts for storms and rain so you can stay informed the moment weather conditions change.
These brand-new features by Windy are here to help you stay safe from storms and dry through all seasons – wherever you are.
🌩️ Live Storm Alerts
Our storm alerts are a unique, location-based safety feature. You will be notified if the storm is less than 1 hour from you and lightning occurs.
Notifications are powered by privately aggregated data from renowned companies focusing on lightning occurrence, including detailed cloud-to-ground lightning detection.To avoid false alarms, our system employs an enhanced filter: alerts are only triggered if at least two lightning strikes occur within a 2.5 km radius over a 15-minute period. If that condition is met, and the storm is less than one hour away from your location, you’ll get notified.
☔️ Live Heavy Rain Alerts
Using real-time radar data from your location, Windy.com detects short-term precipitation trends and notifies you just before the rain begins.
The Heavy Rain notifications utilize 1-hour extrapolated radar data, with a set threshold in dBZ, to determine whether the Rain is heavy or not.This Live Alert is only available in regions covered by radars shared within Windy's network. Check the radar coverage of your location in the radar layer.
ℹ️ How to Enable Live Alerts
- Open Windy.com
- Go to "Menu" (Red circle with 3 horizontal lines)
- Go to 🔔 "My Alerts" (Top-Right Menu)
- Click on the toggle switch to activate Alerts
- "Storms" for Storm Live Alerts,
- "Heavy rain" for Live Rain Alerts.
- You have successfully activated Live Alerts
Live Alerts are available only on mobile devices. To receive them, make sure you're online, logged in, and have location permissions enabled.
Alerts you are familiar with
📡Official Weather Warnings
If you have opened Windy.com before, you might have seen various Weather Warnings - from Thunderstorms to Wildfires.These are official warnings released by local hydrometeorological institutes around the world. Together with our Live Alerts you can keep safe no matter if you are commuting or enjoying your holidays.
They now appear 📍 pinned to your homepage and directly in the forecast detail. But if you are curious about all the Weather Warnings around the world, simply change your layer to Weather warnings.
🙋🏻Forecast Alerts
Do you want more specific Alert?
Windy allows you to create your personalized alert next to our Live Alerts.You can customize the location, weather conditions, and even the duration of those conditions.
Choose from parameters such as:
- Temperature
- Wind (speed and direction)
- Rain (accumulation)
- Cloud cover
- Snowfall
- Your preferred forecast model
You can also personalize the notification text to suit your needs.
Windy allows you to create multiple Forecast Alerts, keeping you safe and informed—whatever the occasion.
How to create your Forecast Alert
- Choose your favorite spot by clicking on the map (or use the search bar instead)
- Click on "the heart icon" (Top-Right on Mobile, Top-Left on Desktop)
- Choose "Alert for this spot"
- Customize your Alert (Location > Activity > Conditions > Customization)
- Agree with the conditions and click "Save"
- You have created the Forecast Alert
To receive Forecast Alerts, make sure you're online and logged in.
To see the instructions, just follow the same path as for Live Alerts: go from "Menu" to "My Alerts" section.
You will find them below the Live Alerts.Niki
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N Nicole Dolezalova moved this topic from Windy Internal on
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N Nicole Dolezalova pinned this topic on
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Hi,
When trying to activate Storm and Rain alerts on my Android smartphone, I receive the following error:
StormTracker Error: No device token available for notifications
What does this exactly mean?
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N Nicole Dolezalova referenced this topic on
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@Joly Hi. This means that notification library did not create the token which is necessary for this functionality. We are planning to release a hotfix for this issue, however as a temporary solution you might try to reinstall the application. This mostly solves the issue. Let me know if the issue persists. Thanks :)
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The Heavy Rain notifications utilize 1-hour extrapolated radar data, with a set threshold in dBZ, to determine whether the Rain is heavy or not
It's raining right now at my current location - I didn't get any notification before, even though radar clearly showed it. That's probably related to the "threshold" that is hardcoded somewhere. It would be cool to be able to modify it - to know about any rain coming my way.
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@Adrian-Nowak Hello, the Forecast Alerts allow you to have notifications about probable forecasted rain in a 3-hour window where you can set a very low threshold, which can currently satisfy your needs. In the meantime, stay tuned for future updates 8-) Niki
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@Adrian-Nowak said in How to activate your Live Storm and Heavy Rain Alerts:
The Heavy Rain notifications utilize 1-hour extrapolated radar data, with a set threshold in dBZ, to determine whether the Rain is heavy or not
It's raining right now at my current location - I didn't get any notification before, even though radar clearly showed it. That's probably related to the "threshold" that is hardcoded somewhere. It would be cool to be able to modify it - to know about any rain coming my way.
Same as I. I received STORM ALERT notification, But I don't received HEAVY RAIN notification. Live in Hangzhou.
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@tomacat As my colleague already responded you in a different thread, China can be sadly complicated in terms of notifications. Have a nice day, Niki
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@Mohsin-Raza-Lashari Hello, Could you show us with some screenshots?
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@Nicole-Dolezalova Hello, it seems that an update is available today on the Play Store 😊
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@Mohsin-Raza-Lashari Hi. The update is currently available only to beta testers. The update will be available for the public probably next week.
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@MarkNagy merci je verrais prochainement si tout fonctionne parfaitement
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This feature is not working properly on my device. See thread here
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This is a fantastic update real-time storm and rain alerts are a game-changer for staying safe and prepared. Love how precise the lightning detection is, and the customization options make it super user-friendly. Great work, Windy team.
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@tomacat said in Unable to enable "Live alert": No device token available for notifications.:
Live Alert mostly push notifications when my mobile network changes. For example, when my mobile Wi-Fi switches to data traffic, it suddenly reminds me of a storm or precipitation, and the notification is too late.
happened again, the alert notification only push when WiFi network change.:(
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i saw it, it was really helpful, i was like a real weather expert when i saw that notification, but none of my friends knew haha
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Are these alerts supposed to work for my exact current location or for my saved "favorites"? At the moment I seem to be getting alerts for all of my three saved favorites - which is confusing when there is heavy rain approaching one of them, but the radar is completely clear where I am actually located.
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@seabee-0 said in How to activate your Live Storm and Heavy Rain Alerts:
Are these alerts supposed to work for my exact current location or for my saved "favorites"?
The live alerts for Storms (thunderstorms) or Heavy rains are set at your location as you can see in the setting window. They work on mobile devices and use their build-in GPS for the location.
These alerts are based on observations in the vicinity by lighting detection for Storms or by radar for Heavy rains.
The standard alerts for Wind, Rain, Temperature… are based on forecast in the next days by a weather model at some of your favorites that you selected. -
@idefix37 Thanks for the response! That's exactly what I would have expected, but on my Pixel 8 Pro v46.1.0, I am still getting alerts that don't match my current location. Just now "Heavy rain likely to start in the next hour" with this screenshot. The alert matches my favourite location further west (where indeed I was this morning), but the map clearly shows my current location in the east.
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@seabee-0
Checking the past 12 hours radar data, the rain was moving to the east. So it was not wrong if you received the alert for your position in the east. -
@idefix37 Yes, but not that far "in the next hour". I am certain I am receiving these alerts for the wrong place. Specifically probably for Salzburg, although I am now in Vienna - both in Austria. I have received about three more of these alerts since I last wrote - none of them made sense for my current location, but they matched the radar situation at the other location. So far, I've tried clearing cache, which hasn't helped.
