Weather Watch, Warning, or Advisory: What Each Alert Means

A watch, warning and advisory do not mean the same thing. Knowing the difference helps you decide whether to review a plan, change your activities or take protective action immediately.

Watch: prepare

A watch is issued when conditions could support a significant hazard. Details may still be uncertain. Use the time to review shelter locations, charge devices, secure outdoor items and adjust travel plans.

Warning: act

A warning indicates that a hazardous event is occurring, imminent or expected and can threaten life or property. Follow the specific instructions in the warning. Tornado, flash-flood, hurricane and winter-storm warnings call for different protective actions.

Advisory: use caution

An advisory generally describes less severe conditions than a warning, but it should not be ignored. Snow, ice, wind, heat, fog or coastal conditions can still make travel and outdoor activity dangerous.

Read the alert—not only the label

Alert criteria can vary by location because the same temperature, snowfall or wind has different impacts in different regions. Read the affected area, start and end times, expected hazards and recommended actions.

Use more than one way to receive alerts

Enable emergency alerts on your phone, follow your local National Weather Service office and keep a battery-powered way to receive information during outages. Do not rely on outdoor sirens as your only warning method.

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This is an original AskNovus explanation based on the linked sources. Featured image: Anandu Vinod via Unsplash. Information may change after publication; check official sources for updates.