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About Wireless Emergency Alerts
The loud buzz-and-tone messages that pop up on your phone are Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA). Here's what they are, what the different kinds mean, and how to control them.
This page is an educational summary from a fan-made game, not official guidance. For the official word, see Ready.gov, weather.gov and FEMA. When you get an alert, follow its instructions.
What is WEA?
Wireless Emergency Alerts are short emergency messages, up to 360 characters, from authorized federal, state, local, tribal and territorial alerting authorities. They are broadcast from cell towers to every WEA-capable phone in a targeted area. WEA is a partnership between FEMA, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and wireless carriers.
- Free and automatic. No app or sign-up is needed, and alerts don't count against your texting plan.
- Location-based, not tracking. Alerts are broadcast to phones in the area, so you get them even when traveling. WEA does not track your location.
- Hard to miss. WEAs have a unique tone and vibration, both repeated twice.
- Built for crowded networks. Cell broadcast isn't slowed by network congestion. If you're on a call, the alert arrives when you hang up.
How an alert reaches your phone
An alerting authority (such as an NWS forecast office, a county emergency manager or a state police agency) writes the alert and sends it to FEMA's Integrated Public Alert & Warning System (IPAWS). IPAWS checks that it's authentic and passes it to wireless carriers, which broadcast it from towers in the target area. The same system also feeds the Emergency Alert System on TV and radio and NOAA Weather Radio.
Badge Quest reads the public copies of these alerts from FEMA IPAWS and the NWS feed after they're issued. That's why the game can't be faster than the real alert, and why you should never rely on it for warnings.
Types of alerts
| Category | What it's for | Can you turn it off? | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|
| National Alert (formerly Presidential) | Sent only by the President or a designee, through FEMA, for a national emergency. | No. It cannot be turned off. | EAGLE |
| Imminent Threat: Extreme | An extreme, current or emerging threat to life or property, from NWS or local officials. | Yes ("Emergency Alerts" or "Extreme threats") | MIDNIGHT |
| Imminent Threat: Severe | A severe threat, one level below Extreme. Includes destructive thunderstorms. | Yes ("Emergency Alerts" or "Severe threats") | HEADSUP |
| Public Safety | Important info that is less urgent, or that follows a threat: road closures, shelters, all-clears. | Yes | CIVIC |
| AMBER Alert | Urgent bulletins about a child abduction. | Yes | BEACON |
| Test | State or local tests of the alert system. The message says TEST. | Yes. Usually off by default; opt in to see them. | DRILL |
Weather warnings NWS sends to phones
The National Weather Service only sends its most dangerous, short-fuse warnings as WEA:
| Warning | Code | Badge |
|---|---|---|
| Tornado Warning | TOR | TWISTER |
| Flash Flood Warning (considerable/catastrophic damage threat only) | FFW | CASCADE |
| Severe Thunderstorm Warning (destructive damage threat only) | SVR | HEADSUP |
| Tsunami Warning | TSW | BREAKER |
| Hurricane, Typhoon, Storm Surge and Extreme Wind Warnings | HUW · SSW · EWW | TEMPEST |
| Dust Storm Warning | DSW | HABOOB |
| Snow Squall Warning | SQW | BLIZZARD |
Watches, advisories and many other warnings (including Blizzard and Winter Storm Warnings) are not sent to phones. Get those from weather.gov, local news or NOAA Weather Radio. Local officials also send non-weather alerts: evacuations, shelter-in-place orders, hazmat, earthquakes (via ShakeAlert) and AMBER Alerts. Each has its own badge.
What to do when you get an alert
- Read the whole message. It tells you what's happening, who sent it and what action to take.
- Take the action it advises, right away: take shelter, evacuate, avoid an area, boil water.
- Get more details from local TV or radio, NOAA Weather Radio, official websites or trusted official social media accounts.
- Call 911 only for an emergency, not to ask about the alert.
- Never go toward the danger, to look, to film, or to earn a badge.
Each badge page has specific steps for that alert, for example Tornado Warning, Flash Flood Warning and Snow Squall Warning.
How to turn alerts on or off
We strongly recommend keeping every alert type on. Settings vary by phone model, carrier and software version.
iPhone
- Open Settings ▸ Notifications.
- Scroll to the bottom, to Government Alerts.
- Turn AMBER Alerts, Public Safety Alerts, Emergency Alerts (Extreme and Severe) and Test Alerts on or off. Tap Emergency Alerts for options such as Always Play Sound.
National Alerts can't be turned off. Test alerts are off by default. Source: Apple Support: Government, Emergency, and Enhanced Safety Alerts on iPhone.
Android
- Open Settings ▸ Safety & emergency ▸ Wireless emergency alerts. On some phones it's Settings ▸ Notifications ▸ Wireless emergency alerts. Or search Settings for “emergency alerts”.
- Use Allow alerts to turn alerts on, then choose Extreme threats, Severe threats, AMBER alerts, Public safety and Test alerts.
Presidential/National alerts can't be turned off. On some phones (for example Google Pixel), the test-alert switch only appears once Developer options are on. Sources: Android Help: Get help during an emergency, Android: How to manage emergency alerts.
Where Badge Quest's rarity numbers come from
We counted WEA alert messages in FEMA's public OpenFEMA IPAWS Archived Alerts dataset for 2023–2025: 28,010 WEA messages in total.
| Year | WEA messages |
|---|---|
| 2023 | 7,349 |
| 2024 | 10,377 |
| 2025 | 10,284 |
Counts are WEA-flagged CAP messages (contains CMAMtext, status=Actual, msgType=Alert) in FEMA's OpenFEMA IPAWS Archived Alerts dataset, filtered by SAME event code or WEA category text, per calendar year. One message can target a small area, so your personal odds are much lower. Messages are not the same as incidents. Counts are approximate (text-match filters). Counts were cross-checked against Iowa Environmental Mesonet warning counts and NCMEC AMBER Alert reports where available. Data generated 2026-10-22.
A count is national. One message can target a single county or a small polygon, so the chance that you get any given alert is much lower than the number suggests. Tiers: COMMON (1,000+ a year), UNCOMMON (200–999), RARE (50–199), EPIC (1–49), LEGENDARY (less than one a year, or never sent for real).
Official resources
- Ready.gov: Emergency Alerts
- FEMA: Wireless Emergency Alerts
- FEMA: Integrated Public Alert & Warning System (IPAWS)
- NWS: Wireless Emergency Alerts (weather warnings on the go)
- FCC: Wireless Emergency Alerts consumer guide
- Ready.gov: Build a Kit
- Weather.gov: National Weather Service
- Ready.gov
Turn alerts into a collection
Badge Quest is on its way to iPhone and Android. The store links go live here at launch.