Publishing an alert forecast
Moments · A National Weather Service alert: the counties drawn, the text as issued, the people under it. Your call - less than the warning suggests, as it says, or worse - and where the worst of it lands. Locks when the alert expires.
The call
Peak window and hardest hit
Your note
What opens
Every alert on the warnings page has a "Publish your forecast" link. The form opens with the alert as the National Weather Service issued it: the event, the area drawn on its counties, the full text, when it expires, and how many people are under it.
What you add, in order
The call - less than the warning suggests, as the warning says, or worse than the warning suggests. Three buttons.
Peak window - optional. The hours you expect the worst of it.
Hardest hit - optional. Which part of the area: the north half, the coast, a county.
Your note - the mechanism. "The training band sets up over the north half after 4 PM; the south of the watch stays mostly dry."
When it locks
When the alert expires. If the Weather Service extends or reissues it, that is a new alert with its own form.
The mark
Against the alert as issued: agrees, stronger (worse), softer (less), differs.
Where it appears
On the alert's page beneath the area map, for the people under it; on your page; in your followers' email. The share image is the area on its counties.