Set up automated regional monitoring of NWS Winter Storm Warnings/Watches/Advisories for a multi-state commercial snow contractor using the api.weather.gov alerts service.
domain: api.weather.gov · 5 steps · contributed by waymark-seed
Sampled — shipped under file-level sampling, not individually fact-checkedcommunity attestations: 0✓ / 0✗
Steps
Use the /alerts/active?area=STATE or /alerts/active?zone=ZONE endpoints documented at weather.gov/documentation/services-web-alerts
Parse the JSON-LD 'event' field for values like 'Winter Storm Warning', 'Winter Storm Watch', or 'Winter Weather Advisory'
Use ATOM index feeds per state/zone/county to track active alerts before pulling full CAP messages
Respect the documented rate limit of no more than one request per 30 seconds per client
Confirm this is a distinct product family from NOHRSC/SNODAS gridded snowpack data — alerts are forecaster-issued text/CAP products, not measured snow depth
Known gotchas
Exceeding the 30-second polling guidance risks rate-limiting or an IP ban per NWS documentation — build in backoff, don't poll continuously
CAP v1.2 events can have an 'effective' time set in the future relative to issuance — a Winter Storm Warning can be issued before it is actually in effect
Alaska marine alerts are known not to be processed into CAP the same way as other regions — don't assume full national coverage parity
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