The estimated reading time for this post is 3 minutes
If you live in an area prone to severe weather, you may want to be warned about dangerous conditions before they occur. By getting severe weather alerts on your iPhone, you can take precautions and try to avoid treacherous conditions
About iPhone Severe Weather Alerts
Beginning with iOS 16, you can set up severe weather alerts on your iPhone to get notifications for precipitation, rain storms, tornados, hurricanes, flash floods, heat waves, and more. You can get severe weather alerts for your current location or for other locations you’ve saved in the Weather app on your iPhone.
One of the benefits of setting up severe weather alerts is that your phone will play a sound and the notification will appear on the screen even if your iPhone is muted or Do Not Disturb is turned on.
Note that severe weather alerts are not available in all countries, according to Apple.
How to Set Up Severe Weather Alerts on Your iPhone
Setting up severe weather alerts is easy and takes just a few steps. First, your iPhone must be updated to iOS 16 or later. To check which iOS version your iPhone is running, go to Settings => General => Software Update. Update your iPhone if you’re not yet running iOS 16 or later.
Next, you need to allow your iPhone to send weather notifications for your current location. Go to Settings => Privacy & Security => Location Services. Scroll down through your apps, then tap Weather => Always. Turn Precise Location => On.
Now you’re ready to turn on severe weather alerts. Open the Weather app. Tap the three stacked lines in the lower right corner of the screen. Next, tap the circle with the three dots in the upper right corner of the screen.
In the drop-down menu, tap Notifications.
On the Notifications page, swipe the Severe Weather switch to On. Tap Done.
While you have that Notifications page open, you can enable notifications for precipitation. Turn Next-Hour Precipitation to On to get warnings for impending rain, sleet, and snow. You may need to tap Continue to confirm your setting.
How to Get Weather Notifications for Other Locations
While it’s useful to get weather notifications for your current location, you may also want to set up weather notifications for other locations. You may want to know, for example, about the weather where you’re planning to travel, or where a loved one is living.
As with setting up severe weather alerts for your current location, open the Weather app on your iPhone. Tap the three stacked lines in the bottom right corner of the screen. Then, tap the circle with the three dots in the upper right corner of the screen.
Below your current location will be a list of other areas you track with the weather app (if you track any). Tap on a location, then turn on the notifications you want for that area. Tap Done in the upper right corner of the screen.
Adding a New Location to the Weather App
To add a new location, open the Weather app, then tap the three lines in the bottom right corner of the screen. Search for a new location. Tap the location, then tap Add in the upper right corner of the screen. That location will now be tracked in your Weather app.
You can rearrange the order of your tracked locations in the app. Press and drag a location up or down until it’s in the order you’d like to see it in the Weather app.
Your Thoughts
Do you live in an area with the potential for severe weather conditions? Would you like to get severe weather alerts? Do you track the weather in other locations?
Share your thoughts in the Comments section below!
I didn’t know you could do this – saves me from constantly doing searches when there’s bad weather, I didn’t know also that you could activate notification for the weather app on my phone! Awesome tip, thanks for this!
Hi Madison, Yes, this new feature came with iOS 16 so many people don’t know about it yet. This is a tool that has the potential to save lives, but you have to know about it to turn it on. I hope you find Severe Weather alerts helpful, Madison.