Skip to Main Content

Alert & Warning Notifications

This page is devoted to all of the different alerting systems in place to help you get alerted. It's possible you may need to create multiple accounts because there are federal systems and local government systems. If you already get AMBER Alerts, then you are likely set for wireless emergency alerts and would likely be notified in case of a statewide emergency. However, you may not be notified if a flood were to occur or a critical road closure. Sign up for a local opt-in Alert for that. And if you live near volcanoes or could be impacted by a tsunami, those systems might be important for you, too. 


Local Opt-in Alerts
for Floods, Wildfires, more


Wireless Emergency Alerts
(WEA)

Verified Emergency
Management News Sources

Tsunami Alerts

ShakeAlert Earthquake Early Warning

Tsunami Alerts

There are multiple ways you can receive Tsunami Alerts:

Check if Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) are turned on
Whether you have an Android Phone or an Apple iPhone, you can receive tsunami alerts for a tsunami warning ONLY through WEA. Check if WEA is turned on by clicking here.

Get a NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards (NWR)
NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards (NWR) is a nationwide network of radio stations broadcasting continuous weather information directly from the nearest National Weather Service office. NWR is an "All Hazards" radio network, making it your single source for comprehensive weather and emergency information. In conjunction with Federal, State, and Local Emergency Managers and other public officials, NWR also broadcasts warning and post-event information for all types of hazards – including tsunamis. To learn more about purchasing a NOAA Weather Radio receiver, check out the National Weather Service here.

Do you have a Reecom weather radio model 1630? This is the model WA EMD and many local jurisdictions utilize and distribute to the public. If so, we have created a video to help you program your radio. Check it out!

Follow the National Tsunami Warning Center X Account

    The National Tsunami Warning Center issues tsunami information for the continental U.S. and Canada. They have an X (former Twitter account) where they post official notices at https://x.com/NWS_NTWC. To receive notifications when a tweet from @NWS_NTWC is sent, you must choose to be notified within the X app on your mobile device and/or through the  website. For instructions on how to set up tweet notifications (also known as “push” notifications) to your device, check out this help menu.

    Download the NVS Tsunami Evacuation App

    Apple software button
    The button shows the Google icon and says get it on Google Play

    The Northwest Association of Networked Ocean Observing Systems provides the NVS Tsunami Evacuation App, available to download for free in the Apple App Store and on Google Play. The NVS Tsunami Evacuation App provides an at-a-glance view of where the tsunami hazard zones are along the Oregon and Washington coast, and allows you to map whether your home, work, school, etc. is located in a tsunami evacuation zone or not. To help you develop and plan your own evacuation routes, the Tsunami Evacuation App enables you to save your current position or points of interest via GPS or address look-up. It also pushes tsunami alert notifications directly to your phone.

    National Weather Service provides InteractiveNWS (iNWS), an application suite able to send NWS products to local partners in multiple ways, including as emails and texts. Visit https://inws.ncep.noaa.gov/ to learn more or to sign up for the service. Once your registration has been accepted you can go onto the site and set up text alerts by county/parish, lat/long, or street address. You can also draw a polygon on the map provided to set up a custom alerting area.

    Other social media accounts

    In addition, you can follow WA EMD, WA DNR, and NWS Seattle and Portland* on social media at the links below to ensure you get updated and accurate event information as quickly as possible. Because we never know when or where disaster will strike, it’s important to have multiple ways of receiving alerts.

    • WA EMD Facebook and X
    • WA DNR Facebook and X
    • NWS Seattle Facebook and X
    • NWS Portland Facebook and X

      *NWS Seattle is responsible for all inner coast Washington counties, as well as Clallam, Jefferson and Grays Harbor counties. NWS Portland is responsible for Pacific County.

    For more about tsunamis and to view tsunami maps, visit our website here.

    ShakeAlert Earthquake Early Warning

    In Washington, there is a free system that can potentially give you seconds of warning before ground shaking occurs in your area. It’s called “ShakeAlert!”
    The USGS ShakeAlert™ Earthquake Early Warning system detects earthquakes that have begun, then sends a warning to mobile phone that shaking is about to occur.
    This system only alerts you about earthquakes that are expected to cause shaking where you are – not distant ones that won’t impact you. If you get a ShakeAlert-powered alert (or feel shaking), it’s time to Drop, Cover, and Hold On appropriately for your situation to protect yourself.

    There are THREE ways you can receive earthquake alerts on your mobile phone, and you don’t even need to download anything.

    • The Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system on all phones
    • Built-in Alerting software on your phones (Android phones Only)
    • The Free MyShake App (Requires Download)
    Infographic showing the three different ways to receive “ShakeAlert-Powered Earthquake Early Warning on your Cell Phone in Washington, Oregon and California,” and providing details on the earthquake magnitude and shaking intensity at which they are sent. Each way shows a hand holding a cell phone that is receiving the alert. The first, Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) are sent by FEMA to all WEA-capable cell phones when an earthquake of magnitude 5.0 or greater will cause light shaking or greater in your area.” The hand in this image is holding a phone that has a small message on the screen, with a yellow exclamation point in a triangle and the message: “Emergency Alert! Earthquake Detected! Expect Shaking Soon. Drop, Cover, and Hold On!” and does not have any graphics. The second image is for Android Alerts, and shows a hand holding a phone receiving a full-screen alert. The top of the screen is red and says “Earthquake!” The lower portion is black with white text and icons showing “Drop” with a person getting low to the ground, and “cover” with a person covering their head and crawling towards a table. Android Alerts are sent by Google to all Android Phones for earthquakes with a magnitude of 4.5 or greater. If your area will get shaking of intensity 3 or 4, (weak, or light shaking) the alert will be “be aware.” For shaking in your area of intensity 5 (Moderate shaking) or greater, the alert will be a “take action” alert like the one on the screen, and will take over the whole screen even in a do not disturb mode. The third and final panel is for how to receive alerts from a Cell Phone App, like the MyShake App, which requires download. In the image, a hand is holding a screen receiving a MyShake Alert, which has “ShakeAlert” in large letters, and says to “Drop, Cover, and Hold On” showing a person getting low to the ground, covering their head and taking cover under something sturdy, and hanging on to their cover until the shaking stops. Alerts from MyShake will come to phones of those who have downloaded and installed the app for earthquakes magnitude 5.5 or greater, that will intensity 3, weak shaking, or stronger in their area.


    The Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system on all phones (and other types of phones)

    Apple iPhone and other phone users can receive ShakeAlert Earthquake Early Warnings through Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA). Check if WEA is turned on by clicking here.

    If shaking from an earthquake is expected at your location, the WEA message will say:

    • English: Earthquake Detected! Drop, Cover, Hold On. Protect Yourself. -USGS ShakeAlert
    • Spanish: Terremoto detectado! Agachese, cubrase, sujetese. Protejase. -USGS ShakeAlert

    For WEA, the system is set for earthquakes 5.0 and above and shaking that would cause shaking strong enough for dishes and windows to rattle or greater in your area. For additional information regarding ShakeAlert and WEA, please visit their website on ShakeAlert®

    If you have an Apple/iPhone, we highly recommend enabling “Local Awareness” which can help ensure that Emergency Alerts, Including earthquake alerts through ShakeAlert arrive more quickly to your area. To reach this new feature, click on your “Emergency Alerts” button, then ensure that the button on “Local Awareness” is to the right (as shown below).

    Phone screen showing how to ensure emergency alerts and Local awareness are on when using an Apple iPhone. The “Emergency Alerts” page on a cell phone is shown, with three options, each with a button to the right of it – in an oval-shaped area, the user can move the button to the right or to the left. In all three cases on the screen, the button is to the right, indicating that the service is “On.” The three settings that are “on” in this situation are: “Emergency Alerts,” “Local Awareness” and “Always Play Sound.”

    For more information about Local Awareness, see this post from Apple Support.

    Learn more about how the ShakeAlert Earthquake Early Warning system works and how to protect yourself before, during and after an earthquake by clicking here.

    Your phone’s built-in software on ANDROID PHONES.

    Android Phone users receive alerts through their phone’s built-in software (No download required). Android Alerting requires that your phone’s location services are “on.” To enable, simply check if earthquake alerts are turned on for your Android Phone by doing the following:

    • Searching your Settings menu for “Earthquake Alerts” will allow you to find the setting in most cases. Otherwise, check your location settings menu.
    • Instructions may vary slightly based on phone model and carrier.
    • We created two videos (Video 1 and Video 2) that might show you where to turn on the alerts.

    Download the MyShake App

    A button shows the Apple icon and says download on the app store
    The button shows the Google icon and says get it on Google Play

    The mobile application is available now for free at the links above. The MyShake App says “Earthquake Warning California,” but please be assured, this app also delivers ShakeAlert earthquake early warning messages in Washington and Oregon states.

    For additional questions on the system, and how to enable it on your phone, please visit USGS.

    Local "OPT IN" emergency alerts

    Find your local region and click the applicable hyperlink. Follow the directions to opt into getting notices on your phone via email and text. These are alerts you would likely NOT receive unless you choose to do so. This is different than a Wireless Emergency Alert or the ShakeAlert system. For instance, you may be notified about road closures, evacuations, wildfires, storms and floods.

    If you're a local jurisdiction and want to make changes to this list, email public.education@mil.wa.gov

    Volcano Notification Service

    To subscribe to receive Volcano Alerts directly from USGS, you can subscribe to the Volcano Notification Service.

    Washington’s five volcanoes (Mt. Baker, Glacier Peak, Mt. Rainier, Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Adams) are all active volcanoes, with the potential to erupt again in our lifetimes. All five are closely monitored by the USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory (CVO) and additional monitoring equipment is constantly being installed. Magma moving up through the crust as a volcano prepares for an eruption is called volcanic unrest and can be detected by USGS CVO’s instruments. If they believe this unrest is a sign of a potential eruption, USGS scientists will change the Volcano Alert Level. Even though small earthquakes are common at many of our volcanoes, a long history of monitoring these volcanoes shows that this is Normal or background-level activity, not something that indicates an eruption is imminent.

    For more on volcano hazards, visit our website here.

    Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA)

    The Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) is a system that broadcasts public safety messages (like AMBER Alerts, Earthquake Early Warning Alerts, Tsunami Alerts) over the commercial cellular system. Customers with compatible mobile phones can receive geographically targeted, text-like messages alerting them to threats to safety in their area. All WEA alerts, regardless of type, behave the same. The device makes a distinctive notification sound and vibration, and the message pops up in a text window on the screen.

    To check if Wireless Emergency Alerts are turned on for Apple iPhones, you will need to do the following:

    • Tap “Settings” > “Notifications”
    • Scroll to the bottom of the screen.
    • Under “Government Alerts” tap “Emergency Alerts” and “Public Safety Alerts” to turn them on or off. Some iPhones have the ability to say "Always Deliver" or to turn this off. You will want to make sure the setting stays on "Always Deliver."
      • If emergency alerts are turned on, the circle will be on the right-hand side of the switch. You will get WEAs on your iPhone and no further action is needed.
      • If emergency alerts are turned off, the circle will be on the left-hand side of the switch. You will need to tap the switch to put it in the “on” position. You will now get WEAs on your iPhone and no further action is needed.
    • Please see a video demonstrating this on an iPhone.

    To check if Wireless Emergency Alerts are turned on for Android Phones, you will need to do the following:

    • We recommend that you use the search function in “Settings” to find “Emergency Alerts” or “Public safety messages." You may have to click the three dots in the upper right-hand corner of the screen, click settings and click alert types.
    • If you can’t find “Emergency Alerts” by searching in “Settings,” try searching for “Emergency Alerts” in the text message app, instead. You may have to click the three dots in the upper right-hand corner of the screen, click settings and click alert types.
    • Make sure all alerts are turned on (i.e. “Extreme threats," “Severe threats,” and “Public safety messages”).

      • If alerts are turned on, the circle will be on the right-hand side of the switch. You will get WEAs on your Android phone and no further action is needed.
      • If alerts are turned off, the circle will be on the left-hand side of the switch. You will need to tap the switch to put it in the “on” position. You will now get WEAs on your Android phone and no further action is needed.
    • As examples, please see a video demonstrating this on an Android Phone (Galaxy S9) and this video for an S21.

    Instructions may vary depending on your mobile phone carrier and/or mobile phone manufacturer. For additional questions, please refer to your mobile phone carrier and/or mobile phone manufacturer’s website for additional information.

    To check if Wireless Emergency Alerts are turned on for other types of phones (not Apple iPhones or Android Phones), you will need to do the following:

    Contact your mobile phone carrier and/or mobile phone’s manufacture's website for additional information. If you already get AMBER Alerts, you may get these alerts, too. But it's not guaranteed because phones use different settings. Ask about emergency alerts or public safety alerts.

    Emergency Management News Sources

    Washington Emergency Management Division maintains a Facebook Page, a Bluesky Account, a Nextdoor Account and an X Account. For local information, consult with local sheriff and county emergency management services.

    Federal sources


    For more information on Washington State emergency notification plans, visit https://mil.wa.gov/plans. For more information on the EAS plan, visit https://mil.wa.gov/emergency-alert-system-eas-state-plan


    ShakeOut-Graphic-Global-Date-GetReady-1080x154-EN