Terms of Service

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern access to and use of the WxAlerts website (wxalerts.org and its subdomains), mobile applications, MQTT feeds, APIs, radar displays, alert and notification systems, community features, and related services (collectively, the "Service") operated by WX Alerts, Inc. ("WxAlerts," "we," "us," or "our"), a Florida not-for-profit corporation focused on severe weather awareness, public safety, and research.

Acceptance of These Terms

Account holders, app users, and API key holders. If you create an account, install and use our mobile applications, or request an API key, you will be asked to affirmatively accept these Terms (and, where indicated, the Life-Safety Disclaimer in Section 6 separately). Upon acceptance, these Terms form a binding agreement between you and WX Alerts, Inc. We record the date, time, and Terms version of your acceptance.

Anonymous visitors. If you access publicly available portions of the Service without an account, these Terms (including the data-use rules in Section 4, the disclaimers in Sections 6 and 7, and the acceptable-use rules in Section 3) constitute the conditions under which access is offered. If you do not agree to them, do not use the Service.

1. Description of the Service

WxAlerts provides free public access to severe weather information, including National Weather Service (NWS) alerts, NEXRAD radar data, GOES satellite and GLM lightning data, model and forecast data, derived products, visualizations, and related notifications. The Service supports storm chasers, weather enthusiasts, researchers, and the general public.

Core access to the Service is currently provided without charge. Features, availability, and scope may change at any time. Certain features may in the future be offered as paid subscriptions or supported by donations; any such offerings will be governed by additional terms presented at the time of purchase or donation (see Section 12).

2. Eligibility; Minors

You must be at least 13 years old to use the Service. The Service is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If we obtain actual knowledge that a user is under 13, we will terminate the account and delete associated personal data.

If you are between 13 and 18 (or the age of majority in your jurisdiction), you may use the Service only with the permission of a parent or legal guardian.

Nothing in these Terms, including Sections 7, 8, and 9, limits or waives any right that cannot be limited or waived under applicable law, including any claim of a minor for personal injury or death.

3. Acceptable Use

You agree to use the Service only for lawful purposes. You may not:

1. Use the Service in violation of any applicable law or regulation.
2. Attempt to gain unauthorized access to any system, account, or data.
3. Interfere with, disrupt, or place an unreasonable load on the Service. For unauthenticated access, requests exceeding 60 requests per minute per client (or any lower limit published at wxalerts.org/limits) are presumptively unreasonable and may be throttled or blocked. Authenticated API and MQTT access is governed by the API Terms of Use (Section 20).
4. Reverse engineer, decompile, or attempt to extract source code from the Service, except to the extent expressly permitted by an applicable open-source license or by law notwithstanding this restriction.
5. Resell the Service, redistribute it for commercial gain, or build commercial services derived from the Service without our prior written permission.
6. Misrepresent the source of any data, or present WxAlerts output as an official NWS, NOAA, or other government product.
7. Harass, abuse, dox, stalk, or harm others, including publishing another person's real-time location without consent, or transmit malware or other harmful code.

3.1 Emergency Alert Tones and Codes (FCC Compliance)

You may not use the Service to reproduce, transmit, broadcast, or simulate the Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) common audio attention signal, the Emergency Alert System (EAS) Attention Signal, or EAS header codes, including any recording or any sound that mimics or is substantially similar to them, except as permitted by 47 C.F.R. §§ 10.520(d) and 11.45 (actual emergency, authorized test, or qualifying public service announcement). This applies to all use of the Service, including API output, MQTT feeds, notification sounds, and community spaces. Violations may result in immediate termination and referral to the Federal Communications Commission.

We reserve the right to suspend or terminate access for any violation of this Section 3.

4. Intellectual Property; Weather Data Terms

4.1 Our Property

The Service, including its design, software, trademarks, and original content, but excluding third-party and government weather data, is owned by WX Alerts, Inc. or its licensors. We grant you a limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use the Service for personal, non-commercial, educational, or research purposes in accordance with these Terms.

4.2 Open-Source Components

Portions of the Service include open-source software governed by their respective licenses. Required notices and attributions are published at wxalerts.org/oss and within the mobile applications. Nothing in these Terms restricts rights granted to you by those licenses.

4.3 Government Weather Data

Weather data distributed through the Service originates from NOAA, the NWS, and other public sources and is generally in the public domain. Consistent with NWS terms of use, you may not: (1) claim NWS information as your own; (2) use it in a manner that implies endorsement by or affiliation with NOAA or the NWS; or (3) modify it and present the result as official government material.

WxAlerts is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or an official product of NOAA or the National Weather Service. WxAlerts attributes NWS/NOAA as the source of unaltered government data. Derived and processed products, including machine-learning nowcasts, processed GLM lightning data, radar mosaics, and other experimental outputs, are products of WxAlerts, are not official NWS products, and are not presented as unaltered NOAA data. WxAlerts uses the NWS and NOAA names only to identify unaltered content and to link to official sources.

Certain third-party or restricted datasets, if any, are redistributed only as permitted by their providers; applicable pass-through restrictions are stated in the API Terms of Use.

5. User Content

5.1 What This Covers

"User Content" means anything you submit, post, transmit, or upload through the Service, including storm reports, photographs and video, chat and community posts, saved place names, and profile information. Suggestions and bug reports are handled separately under Section 14.

5.2 You Keep Ownership; License to Us

You retain all ownership rights in your User Content. You grant WX Alerts, Inc. a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, sublicensable license to host, store, reproduce, reformat, publish, publicly display, and distribute your User Content for the purpose of operating, improving, and promoting the Service. This license exists so we can run the Service (display your storm report on a map, resize a photograph, cache it at a CDN) and for no wider purpose.

The license ends when you delete the User Content or your account, except for: (a) copies retained in routine backups for a reasonable period; (b) copies others have already shared or downloaded; and (c) aggregated or de-identified data that no longer identifies you or your content.

5.3 Your Responsibility

You are solely responsible for your User Content, and you represent that you have the rights necessary to submit it and to grant the license above. You may not submit User Content that: is unlawful, infringing, defamatory, or fraudulent; violates Section 3 or the Community Guidelines referenced in Section 19; discloses another person's real-time location without their consent; or contains any signal or code restricted by Section 3.1. Do not submit anything you consider confidential; the Service is not a confidential channel.

5.4 Storm Reports

Never place yourself in danger to submit a report. No report is worth a life, and nothing in the Service asks or expects you to obtain one. Storm reports submitted by users are unverified, are not National Weather Service reports, and may be inaccurate, mistimed, or misplaced. We may display them, forward them to the NWS or emergency management, or decline to do either. Treat them as you would any other part of the Service; see Section 6.

5.5 Moderation and Removal

We may remove, refuse, edit for format, or restrict the distribution of any User Content, and may suspend or terminate accounts, at our discretion and without notice. We have no obligation to monitor User Content, and our right to moderate is not a promise that we do. If you believe content on the Service infringes your copyright or other rights, contact legal@wxalerts.org with enough detail to identify the material and your claim.

6. Life-Safety Disclaimer

This Section 6 is a material term of these Terms. Account holders and app users are asked to acknowledge this Section separately at signup or first launch.

7. Disclaimer of Warranties; Beta Features

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE," WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, ACCURACY, NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND AVAILABILITY. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE, ERROR-FREE, OR FREE OF HARMFUL COMPONENTS.

Features identified as beta, experimental, preview, or similar, including machine-learning nowcasts and developer-portal features, may change, malfunction, or be withdrawn at any time without notice and are provided strictly "as is."

8. Limitation of Liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, AND SUBJECT TO THE CARVE-OUTS BELOW:

(a) WX ALERTS, INC. AND ITS OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, VOLUNTEERS, AND AFFILIATES SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, DATA, GOODWILL, OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO YOUR USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE SERVICE, UNDER ANY LEGAL THEORY, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

(b) OUR TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY FOR ALL CLAIMS ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS OR THE SERVICE SHALL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF ONE HUNDRED U.S. DOLLARS ($100) OR THE AMOUNTS YOU PAID US IN THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS PRECEDING THE CLAIM.

Carve-outs. The limitations in this Section 8 do not apply to: (i) death or personal/bodily injury caused by our negligence; (ii) our gross negligence, recklessness, or willful misconduct; (iii) our fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation; or (iv) any liability that cannot be limited or excluded under applicable law.

Some jurisdictions do not allow certain exclusions or limitations; in those jurisdictions, the above apply only to the fullest extent permitted.

9. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless WX Alerts, Inc. and its officers, directors, employees, volunteers, and affiliates from and against any third-party claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or relating to: (a) your User Content; (b) your violation of these Terms; (c) your violation of applicable law or the rights of another; or (d) your commercial redistribution of the Service in violation of Section 3. This Section does not require you to indemnify us for claims arising from our own negligence, gross negligence, or willful misconduct.

10. Privacy; Account Deletion

Your use of the Service is subject to our Privacy Policy, published at wxalerts.org/privacy and linked within the mobile applications, at signup, and in app-store listings. The Privacy Policy is incorporated into these Terms by reference.

If you have an account, you may delete it, along with associated personal data, at any time from within the app (Settings → Account → Delete Account) or at wxalerts.org/delete. Deletion requests are processed within 30 days. We may retain limited data where required by law or for security and abuse-prevention purposes, as described in the Privacy Policy.

11. Notifications and SMS

Push notifications are opt-in. You control which alert severity tiers you receive and may disable notifications at any time in the app or your device settings. Notification delivery depends on third-party platforms (including Firebase Cloud Messaging), your device, and network conditions, and is not guaranteed (see Section 6).

SMS alerts. We send text messages only to a mobile number you have entered on your own account and then confirmed with a code we sent to that handset. Consent is given separately and affirmatively, with a box that starts unchecked and is never bundled into accepting these Terms, and is not a condition of using WxAlerts: every alert remains free on the website and in the apps whether or not you ever give us a number. We record the wording you agreed to and the date you agreed to it.

Reply STOP to any WxAlerts message to end them, or HELP for help; STOP takes effect immediately and needs no sign-in. You can also remove your number from your account at any time. Message frequency varies with weather conditions. Message and data rates may apply, depending on your mobile plan. SMS delivery depends on your carrier and is subject to the same no-guarantee terms as every other channel (see Section 6). Never rely on a text message as your only means of receiving a warning.

SMS alerts are included with supporter tiers at or above $8 per month; the website, the apps and the API remain free of charge. We operate this programme in accordance with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and applicable carrier registration requirements.

12. Donations and Paid Features

Donations to WX Alerts, Inc., if accepted, are voluntary and non-refundable except as required by law, and are processed by third-party payment processors subject to their terms. WX Alerts, Inc. is a Florida not-for-profit corporation. It is not a registered charity: it holds no determination of tax-exempt status under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and has no application for one pending. Donations are therefore not tax-deductible. If that changes we will say so here and on the support page before claiming otherwise; until then, consult a tax advisor rather than relying on this page. Any future paid subscriptions or features will be governed by supplemental terms (including pricing, billing, renewal, and cancellation) presented and accepted before purchase.

13. Third-Party Services and Links

The Service links to and integrates with third-party sites, data sources, and services (including NOAA/NWS, cloud and messaging platforms, and Discord). We are not responsible for third-party content, accuracy, availability, or practices. Your use of third-party services is at your own risk and subject to their terms.

14. Feedback

If you submit feedback, suggestions, ideas, or bug reports, you grant WX Alerts, Inc. a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, fully paid-up, sublicensable license to use and incorporate them into the Service and other products, without restriction, obligation, or compensation.

15. Force Majeure

We are not liable for any failure or delay in performance caused by circumstances beyond our reasonable control, including acts of God, severe weather, failures of upstream data sources or providers (including NWS, NOAA, satellite feeds, cloud hosting, and messaging platforms), network or power outages, labor disputes, war, terrorism, civil unrest, or government action. We make no service-level or uptime commitments.

16. Export Controls and Sanctions

You represent that you are not located in, ordinarily resident in, or acting on behalf of any country or party subject to comprehensive U.S. embargoes or sanctions, and that you are not listed on any U.S. government restricted-party list. You agree to comply with all applicable U.S. export control and sanctions laws in connection with the Service.

17. Changes to These Terms; Notices

We may modify these Terms. When we do, we will post the updated Terms at wxalerts.org with a new "Last Updated" date.

Material changes. For material changes, we will provide at least 30 days' advance notice to account holders by email (if provided) or in-app notice before the changes take effect, and may require renewed acceptance for significant changes. If you do not agree to modified Terms, stop using the Service and, if applicable, delete your account before the effective date.

Anonymous visitors. For users without accounts, the posted Terms with their stated effective date govern; continued use after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the notice-based conditions described in "Acceptance of These Terms."

Notices. We may give you notice by email to the address on your account, by in-app notice, or by posting to wxalerts.org. Legal notices to us must be sent to the contact in Section 24, with email to legal@wxalerts.org.

18. Termination

We may suspend or terminate your access to all or part of the Service at any time, with or without notice, including for violation of these Terms. You may stop using the Service at any time and may delete your account as described in Section 10. Sections 4–9, 14, 16, and 20–23 survive termination.

19. Community Features

Community features, including our Discord server, chat, and user-submitted storm reports, are additionally governed by our Community Guidelines, published at wxalerts.org/community and incorporated by reference. We may moderate, remove content, restrict features, or ban participants at our discretion. To report objectionable content or conduct, use the in-app or in-server reporting tools or contact abuse@wxalerts.org. Storm chaser and spotter safety matters: do not share another user's real-time location without their consent.

20. API and Developer Terms

Access to developer APIs, API keys, and authenticated MQTT feeds is governed by the WxAlerts API Terms of Use, published at wxalerts.org/api-terms and accepted at key issuance. The API Terms address rate limits, key security, revocation, permitted and prohibited redistribution, downstream compliance with Sections 3.1 and 4.3, and attribution requirements. Where the API Terms are silent, these Terms control. API keys issued before the API Terms are published are subject to these Terms and to rate limits communicated at issuance.

21. Accessibility

We are committed to making the Service accessible to people with disabilities and work toward conformance with recognized accessibility standards. To report an accessibility barrier or request an accommodation, contact accessibility@wxalerts.org.

22. Governing Law; Venue; Class Action Waiver

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Florida, without regard to conflict-of-law principles.

Venue. Any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service shall be brought exclusively in the state courts located in Santa Rosa County, Florida, or the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida (Pensacola Division), and each party irrevocably consents to personal jurisdiction and venue there. This venue requirement is mandatory, not permissive.

Class action waiver. To the maximum extent permitted by law, you and WX Alerts, Inc. agree that any proceeding will be conducted only on an individual basis and not as a class, consolidated, or representative action. If this waiver is found unenforceable as to a particular claim, it is severable as to that claim only, and the remainder of these Terms remains in effect.

Nothing in this Section limits either party's right to seek injunctive relief or affects rights that cannot be waived under applicable law.

23. Miscellaneous

• Severability. If any provision of these Terms is held invalid or unenforceable, that provision will be enforced to the maximum extent permissible and the remaining provisions will remain in full force and effect.
• Entire agreement. These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, Community Guidelines, and API Terms of Use (each as applicable), constitute the entire agreement between you and WX Alerts, Inc. regarding the Service and supersede all prior agreements on the subject.
• No waiver. Our failure to enforce any provision is not a waiver of it.
• Assignment. You may not assign these Terms without our written consent; we may assign them in connection with a merger, reorganization, or transfer of the Service.
• Headings. Headings are for convenience only and do not affect interpretation.

24. Contact

WX Alerts, Inc.
6433 Cedar Street
Milton Florida, 32570
Email: legal@wxalerts.org
General inquiries: support@wxalerts.org