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 NWS Warnings Coming to Wireless Emergency Alerts
 
Starting May 30, 2012, 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 forma t.
 
CAP is an industry standard for the exchange of emergency alert
information.  During 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
- Hurricane and Typhoon Warnings
- Tornado Warnings
- Flash Flood Warnings
- Extreme Wind Warnings
- Blizzard & 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 Em ergency 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 participati ng 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@noaa.gov
 
National Public Information Notices are online at:
http://www.weather.gov/os/notif.htm
 
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