Get weather alerts

The publicAlerts endpoint provides details for specific weather event alerts issued by authoritative national and international agencies. These alerts deliver crucial, potentially life-saving information.

The endpoint returns weather alerts occurring in real time for a given latitude and longitude. Supported weather events include the following:

• Precipitation: Rain, snow, hail, droughts, and more
• Extreme temperatures: Cold, heat, freeze, frost, wind chill, and humidity
• Wind and storm events: Blizzards, hurricanes, tornados, tropical storms, thunderstorms, and more
• Visibility impairments: Fog, dust storms, and blowing snow
• Water-related hazards: Floods, tsunamis, storm surges, coastal hazards, and more
• Geophysical and geological events: Earthquakes, landslides, and volcanic activity
• Fire incidents: Wildfire, fire weather, and more

For a complete list of supported weather events, see Weather event types.

Alerts may or may not contain localized descriptions, depending on what is available from the data source. Due to data source restrictions, the information is served as-is (raw content). For more information about weather alert sources, see Data sources.

The API returns the following information for a given weather alert:

• The type of weather event associated with the alert
• A list of affected areas along with coordinates defining the geographical boundaries of those areas
• A one-sentence summary of the weather event
• Severity, certainty, and urgency levels
• A description of action-recommend instructions for the target audience
• Safety recommendations
• Start and end times for the alert
• The name and website of the publishing authority

The APIs Explorer lets you make live requests so that you can get familiar with the API and the API options:

About weather alert requests

To request weather alert information, send an HTTP GET request to:

https://weather.googleapis.com/v1/publicAlerts:lookup?key=YOUR_API_KEY&location.latitude=LATITUDE&location.longitude=LONGITUDE&languageCode=LANGUAGE_CODE

Include the latitude and longitude coordinates of the location in your request URL parameters.

About weather alert responses

The Weather API returns the following fields in the response body:

Data sources

The weather alerts endpoint returns data published by the providers listed in the following table. Based on the latitude and longitude coordinates provided in the request, the response body surfaces data from the appropriate local authority.

Providers included in the feed follow Google's Public Alerts guidelines. Google may update the list of providers at any time.

Attribution

On all displays where the data is presented, the customer application must include an attribution to the original source using the dataSource field:

"dataSource": {
        "publisher": "NOAA",
        "name": "National Weather Service",
        "authorityUri": "https://www.weather.gov/"
      }

The attribution must include the full name of the data source (as provided in the name field) and hyperlink to the data source using the URL provided in the authorityUri field (for example, "National Weather Service").

Weather event types

The following weather event types are supported:

Response translation behavior

Google provides translations for the alertTitle field only. Other fields such as eventType, areaName, instruction, and safetyRecommendations may also be translated, depending on the original data source's language support; however, Google can't provide independent translations for these fields.

Based on the languageCode parameter included in the request, the following behaviors are expected for the alertTitle field:

• Supported languageCode: If the requested languageCode is both provided and supported, the response is returned in the requested language.
• Unsupported languageCode: In cases where the requested languageCode is not supported and a close alternative cannot be found, the endpoint returns the response in English by default.
• No languageCode provided: The endpoint returns the response in English by default.

Weather alert request example

The following example requests weather alert information for a town in North Carolina:

curl -X GET "https://weather.googleapis.com/v1/publicAlerts:lookup?key=YOUR_API_KEY&location.latitude=35.824635&location.longitude=-78.3168047&languageCode=en"

The response body is as follows:

{
  "weatherAlerts": [
    {
      "alertId": "urn:oid:2.49.0.1.840.0.2416b1b5a6f51d29ef4b94948328dca303fbbb5c.001.1",
      "alertTitle": {
        "text": "Flash Flood Warning",
        "languageCode": "en"
      },
      "eventType": "FLASH_FLOOD",
      "areaName": "Franklin, NC; Johnston, NC; Nash, NC; Wake, NC",
      "polygon": "{\"type\":\"Polygon\",\"coordinates\":[[[-78.450000,35.820000],[-78.410000,35.730000],[-78.280000,35.660000],
        [-78.180000,35.740000],[-77.840000,36.150000],[-77.890000,36.140000],[-77.900000,36.160000],[-77.920000,36.170000],
        [-77.930000,36.190000], [-77.940000,36.190000],[-77.950000,36.180000],[-77.970000,36.190000],[-77.970000,36.180000],
        [-77.980000,36.180000],[-78.010000,36.210000],[-78.040000,36.210000],[-78.110000,36.210000],[-78.130000,36.230000],
        [-78.350000,35.940000],[-78.450000,35.820000]]]}",
      "description": "FFWRAH\n\nThe National Weather Service in Raleigh has issued a\n\n* Flash Flood Warning for...
        \nEastern Franklin County in central North Carolina...\nNorth Central Johnston County in central North Carolina...
        \nWestern Nash County in central North Carolina...\nEast Central Wake County in central North Carolina...
        \n\n* Until 530 PM EDT.\n\n* At 224 PM EDT, local law enforcement reported flash flooding in\nSpring Hope. Between 3 and 5 inches of rain have fallen.
        \nAdditional rainfall amounts of 1 to 3 inches are possible in the\nwarned area.\n\nHAZARD...Life threatening flash flooding.
        Heavy rain producing\nflash flooding.\n\nSOURCE...Law enforcement reported.\n\nIMPACT...Life threatening flash flooding of creeks and streams,\nurban areas,
        highways, streets and underpasses.\n\n* Some locations that will experience flash flooding include...
        \nZebulon, Bunn, Wendell, Spring Hope, Middlesex, Castalia,\nCenterville, Pilot, Emit and Aventon.",
      "severity": "SEVERE",
      "certainty": "LIKELY",
      "urgency": "IMMEDIATE",
      "instruction": [
        "Turn around, don't drown when encountering flooded roads. Most flood\ndeaths occur in vehicles."
      ],
      "safetyRecommendations": [
        {
          "directive": "Build an emergency kit and make a family communications plan.",
          "subtext": "Follow the instructions at http://www.ready.gov/build-a-kit for building 
            an emergency kit and http://www.ready.gov/make-a-plan for a family communications plan."
        },
        {
          "directive": "Be aware that flash flooding can occur. ",
          "subtext": "If there is any possibility of a flash flood, move immediately to higher ground. Do not wait for instructions to move."
        },
        ...
      ],
      "timezoneOffset": "-14400s",
      "startTime": "2025-08-06T18:24:00Z",
      "expirationTime": "2025-08-06T21:30:00Z",
      "dataSource": {
        "publisher": "NOAA",
        "name": "National Weather Service",
        "authorityUri": "https://www.weather.gov/"
      }
    }
  ],
  "regionCode": "US"
}

Try it!

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1. Select the API icon api on the right side of the page.

2. Optionally edit the request parameters.

3. Select the Execute button. In the dialog, choose the account that you want to use to make the request.

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