Severe weather isn’t just a forecast—it’s a disruptor. It grounds flights, delays shipments, shuts down job sites, and threatens public safety. And too often, businesses and government agencies don’t know what’s coming until it’s too late to act.
Many weather alert systems only warn you when dangerous conditions are already unfolding—not when they’re building. As a result, organizations are forced to react instead of prepare. Last-minute decisions become the norm and not the exception.
The stakes are high—in 2024 alone, severe weather caused more than $182 billion in damages across the U.S. Every minute of delay in preparation can mean greater financial losses, safety risks, and operational chaos.
The latest enhancements to AEM Elements® 360 help address this challenge by giving organizations more lead time to prepare for severe weather. They work by looking beyond current conditions to trigger alerts based on forecasts. With these forward-looking alerts, businesses and agencies can act earlier—adjusting schedules, mobilizing resources, and protecting people and assets before extreme conditions escalate.
In this blog post, we will dive into each of the new automated, forecast-based alerting features in AEM Elements 360. They are:
National Weather Service alerting: Never miss a critical advisory, watch, or warning
The National Weather Service (NWS) provides critical weather alerts in the United States. With this new enhancement, users can automate alerts based on NWS advisories, watches, and warnings —ensuring that when the NWS issues a warning, the right people are notified immediately, across multiple channels.
Why does this matter? The NWS is the primary weather authority in the U.S., providing official life-saving alerts for over 50 different severe weather hazards, including tornadoes, hurricanes, wind, winter weather, flash floods, and extreme heat. These warnings serve as a foundation for many organizations’ emergency response plans. But timely action depends on immediate awareness. Now, AEM Elements 360 ensures those critical alerts are delivered instantly.
With customizable thresholds and location-specific delivery, organizations can filter out irrelevant alerts and focus on the ones that truly impact their operations—helping them act faster and with greater precision when severe weather strikes.
See NWS forecast alerting in action:
Dangerous Thunderstorm Alerts (DTAs): More lead time, higher confidence
AEM Elements 360 already provides real-time lightning data and the ability to configure alerts based on strikes within a specified range of a location. But did you know that lightning activity can serve as an important indicator of increasing storm severity including dangerous conditions like hail and tornadoes?
That’s where Dangerous Thunderstorm Alerts (DTAs) come in.
DTAs combine our proprietary algorithms with data from our Earth Networks Total Lightning Network®, the world's most extensive and precise lightning detection, to detect and track dangerous thunderstorms up to 45 minutes before they arrive.
DTAs offer several critical advantages:
- Traditional severe thunderstorm warnings may come too late. The ability to see a storm forming and strengthening earlier means businesses can take proactive measures instead of reacting last-minute.
- DTAs provide a higher confidence level. Unlike generic weather warnings, DTAs are based on real-time total lightning data (both cloud-to-ground and in-cloud lightning) and advanced storm-tracking models, ensuring that alerts aren’t just early—they’re also more precise.
- It’s a step beyond traditional lightning alerts. While standard lightning alerts notify users when a strike occurs nearby, DTAs transform that data into a broader view of storm progression, allowing for better planning and risk assessment well before the first strike reaches your location.
This means that whether you’re managing airport ground operations, securing outdoor events, or protecting critical infrastructure, you have the earliest possible warning to make informed decisions that keep people and assets safe.
ENcast Alerting: Hyperlocal forecast alerts for the conditions that matter most
While NWS alerts provide warnings for broad geographic areas like counties or regions, weather conditions often vary dramatically within those boundaries. A severe storm that triggers a county-wide alert may never impact your specific facility, route, or site. That’s where ENcast alerting takes weather forecast alerting to the next level.
Powered by AI-driven forecasts, ENcast now delivers customized alerts based on forecasted conditions at your exact sensor location or a designated lat/long —not just a general area.
What sets ENcast alerting apart?
- More precision than standard weather alerts. Instead of relying on broad NWS alerts, users can receive notifications only when dangerous weather is predicted to impact their specific location.
- Covers multiple, customizable weather parameters. Set alerts for the exact conditions that matter to your operations, whether it’s wind speeds over 40 mph, freezing rain, extreme heat, or heavy snowfall.
- Up to 10 days of lead time. By identifying dangerous conditions well in advance, organizations can adjust schedules, reposition assets, and prepare response teams before bad weather arrives.
This is especially valuable for industries like aviation, transportation, energy, and construction, where precise weather insights directly impact safety and operations. Rather than reacting to a broad warning that may not affect them, users can now confidently take action knowing that the forecasted weather truly applies to their location.
How to get started with forecast alerting in AEM Elements 360
Severe weather can disrupt operations, delay critical decisions, and put people at risk. With AEM Elements 360’s new forecast-based alerting, organizations get the advanced warning they need to take action before conditions escalate. Whether it’s getting ahead of NWS watches, warnings, and advisories, detecting dangerous thunderstorms earlier, or understanding how weather will impact you days in advance, these new tools help businesses and agencies stay prepared, minimize disruptions, and protect what matters most.
Want to learn more about how forecast alerting can improve your weather readiness? Connect with one of our severe weather experts and explore how AEM Elements 360 can help.