Badge Quest
Do not seek out these events. They will find you. Badge Quest is a game, not an official alert source. Always follow official instructions from your local authorities and the alert itself. Not affiliated with FEMA, the National Weather Service or the FCC.

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TEMPEST badge: 8-bit pixel art for the Hurricane / Storm Surge alert

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CORE BADGE

TEMPEST BADGE

ALERT
Hurricane / Storm Surge
CODES
HUW · SSW · EWW
RARITY
★★★☆☆ RARE
UPGRADE
MAELSTROM after 10 alerts

“You out-waited a whole spinning weather system.”

⚠ Do not seek out these events. They will find you.

Never travel toward a storm, fire, flood or any emergency to earn a badge. This page is general safety information, not an alert. If you get a real alert, follow the instructions in it and from local officials.

What this alert means

TEMPEST covers three NWS warnings: Hurricane Warning (HUW), hurricane-force winds are expected; Storm Surge Warning (SSW), life-threatening flooding from rising seawater is expected; and Extreme Wind Warning (EWW), extreme winds from the core of a major hurricane are imminent, so take shelter now.

Storm surge and flooding cause most hurricane deaths, not wind.

What to do if you get one

  • If local officials tell you to evacuate, go. Know your evacuation zone before a storm.
  • Run from water, hide from wind: if you are not in a surge zone, shelter in a sturdy building in an interior room away from windows.
  • For an Extreme Wind Warning, go to an interior room on the lowest floor that is not at risk of flooding, right now.
  • Never walk or drive through floodwater. Run generators only outdoors, far from windows (carbon monoxide kills).

Summarized from the official guidance below. The alert itself and your local authorities always come first.

How the badge is earned

Your home area is under a Hurricane, Storm Surge or Extreme Wind Warning.

It happens automatically. The Badge Quest server reads the public FEMA IPAWS and National Weather Service alert feeds and awards the badge when an alert's official target area covers the home area you set (ZIP code or location). There's nothing to log or claim, and it can't be faked.

How rare is it?

RARE ★★★☆☆: the RARE tier means 50 to 199 WEA messages a year nationally. ~165 WEA messages/yr nationally (2023-25 avg: 143 / 347 / 4).

WEA-flagged alert messages in FEMA's IPAWS archive (IPAWS archive filter: HUW, SSW, EWW). One message can cover a small area, so your personal odds are much lower.
YearTEMPEST messagesAll WEA messages
20231437,349
202434710,377
2025410,284
Avg / yr1659,337

2024: 347 hurricane-family WEAs. 2025: just 4 (storm surge only). Very seasonal and coastal.

How rarity is calculated

Upgrade: MAELSTROM

TEMPEST badgeMAELSTROM, the upgraded TEMPEST badge: pixel art

MAELSTROM

★★★★☆ EPIC

After 10 different qualifying alerts for your area, the game shows “Hold on... your TEMPEST badge is upgrading!” and then “Your TEMPEST badge was upgraded to a MAELSTROM!”. Repeats of the same alert don't count twice.

“Ten hurricane warnings. Plywood pre-cut and labeled by window. The eye winks at you.”

Upgraded badges rank one rarity tier above their base badge (capped at LEGENDARY). That tier is a game rule, not a separate statistic.

Part of these combo badges

Official sources

Rarity data

Collect them all

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