Terms of Service

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern access to and use of the WxAlerts website (wxalerts.org and its subdomains, including training.wxalerts.org), mobile applications, MQTT feeds, APIs, radar displays, alert and notification systems, spotter training and certification, 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 create 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.

Organizations. If you accept these Terms on behalf of a company, agency, school, club, or other organization, you represent that you have authority to bind it, and "you" includes that organization.

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, the acceptable-use rules in Section 3, and the API rules in Sections 20 and 21 as they apply to unauthenticated access) 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, surface observations, model and forecast data, derived products, visualizations, and related notifications. The Service supports storm chasers, spotters, weather enthusiasts, emergency managers, researchers, educators, and the general public.

1.1 What the Service Includes

• Relayed government products, such as NWS watches, warnings and advisories, which we receive and pass on but do not write, change or cancel.
• Observations from quality-controlled sources, including NOAA/AWC METAR reports, volunteer stations in the Citizen Weather Observer Program (CWOP) and APRS network, and NOAA National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) buoys.
• Lightning data, including NOAA GOES Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) data.
• WxAlerts products, including WXA/SA (WxAlerts Storm Analysis) storm-cell and rotation tracking, WxAlerts lightning alerts, nowcasts, and other derived and experimental outputs. These are produced by WxAlerts and are not NWS warnings.
• Spotter training and certification (see Section 1.2).
• Community features, storm reports, and integrations such as MQTT, Home Assistant and MeshMonitor.

Core access to the Service, including every NWS alert, is provided without charge. Certain features are offered through optional paid Supporter plans (see Section 12). Features, availability, and scope may change at any time.

1.2 Spotter Training and Certification

WxAlerts offers a free spotter training course and certification exams. The course is structured like an NWS SKYWARN class, but it is a WxAlerts program. WxAlerts is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by NOAA or the National Weather Service, and a WxAlerts certificate is not an NWS SKYWARN credential, a government license, or a qualification to act on behalf of any agency. You may not represent a WxAlerts certificate as any of those things.

Certification gives your account the Spotter type and affects how your reports are scored on the Service. Certification requires continuing education to stay current and may lapse, be suspended, or be revoked under these Terms, including for false reports or misconduct. Training content is educational. It does not make storm spotting safe and does not authorize you to enter dangerous conditions, trespass, or break traffic laws. Never place yourself in danger to observe or report weather.

2. Eligibility; Minors; Accounts

2.1 Eligibility; Minors

You must be at least 15 years old to use the Service. Accounts for users under 15 are not permitted. The Service is not directed to children under 15, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 15. If we discover that a user is under 15, the account terminates immediately and we will delete associated personal data. Any dispute involving that user is governed by the law of the user's home state, and the arbitration clause in Section 23, including arbitration in Milton, Florida, does not apply to it.

If you are between 15 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. In a school, daycare, camp or club setting, the account holder must be the responsible adult or the organization, never a child under 15.

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.

2.2 Accounts

Some features, including saved places, notifications, storm reports, spotter certification, and API keys, require an account. Every account has one type (Personal, Spotter, Meteorologist, or EOC), described in our documentation. Meteorologist and EOC types are granted after review, and we may decline, change, or remove an account type at our discretion.

You agree to provide accurate information, keep it current, keep your sign-in credentials secure, and tell us promptly at security@wxalerts.org if you believe your account has been compromised. You are responsible for activity under your account. One person may not impersonate another, and you may not create accounts to evade a suspension, ban, limit, or revocation.

3. Acceptable Use

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

• Use the Service in violation of any applicable law or regulation.
• Attempt to gain unauthorized access to any system, account, or data.
• 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 Sections 20 and 21 and the Documentation.
• Scrape, crawl, or bulk-download any part of the Service that is not exposed as a documented API endpoint or feed.
• Reverse engineer, decompile, or attempt to extract source code from the Service, except to the extent permitted by law notwithstanding this restriction, or as allowed by the license of any WxAlerts code we publish as open source.
• Resell the Service, redistribute it for commercial gain, or build commercial services derived from the Service without our prior written permission.
• Misrepresent the source of any data, or present WxAlerts output as an official NWS, NOAA, or other government product.
• Submit false, misleading, or prank storm reports or bad-alert reports.
• 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, WXA/SA and other derived products, training materials, 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 Government Weather Data

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 WXA/SA storm analysis, WxAlerts lightning alerts, 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.

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, forward a report to the NWS or emergency management) 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, or reports already forwarded to the NWS or emergency management; 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; depicts or promotes the sexual abuse or exploitation of a child, which we screen for as described in Section 5.7; 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. Knowingly false reports may lead to loss of Spotter certification and termination. Treat reports as you would any other part of the Service; see Section 6.

5.5 Copyright and DMCA

WX Alerts, Inc. has a designated agent under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), reachable at dmca@wxalerts.org. If you believe material on the Service infringes your copyright, email that address and identify the material.

When we receive a valid DMCA takedown notice, we will promptly remove or disable access to the identified material.

If material you posted is found to violate this policy, we will suspend your account, and we may bar you from WxAlerts entirely, including as a spotter. We terminate the accounts of repeat infringers.

5.6 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. Apart from the screening of uploaded photographs described in Section 5.7, we have no obligation to monitor User Content, and our right to moderate is not a promise that we do. For copyright claims, see Section 5.5. If you believe content on the Service infringes other rights, contact legal@wxalerts.org with enough detail to identify the material and your claim.

5.7 Child Safety Screening

Every image you upload to be shown on the Service, meaning a storm report photograph or a spotter profile picture, is automatically checked for child sexual abuse material using industry-standard safety and compliance tools before it is published. If an upload is flagged, it is refused, and your account is disabled until a person on our team has reviewed it, which is usually within 24 hours. We email you when that happens, with how to respond: write to support@wxalerts.org. If the review finds the upload was flagged in error, your account and anything taken down with it are restored.

If the review confirms the material, or it cannot be completed in time, we report it to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), as U.S. law requires (18 U.S.C. 2258A), together with the account and upload details that law requires us to keep, and the account is closed. NCMEC may pass the report to law enforcement. See Section 3.7 of the Privacy Policy for what is kept and for how long.

6. Life-Safety Disclaimer

Organizations and developers. If you use the Service, the API, or MQTT to inform others, including through an application, a mesh network, a public display, a siren or outdoor warning system, an emergency operations center, a school, or a venue, you are responsible for maintaining official alerting sources and your own procedures, and you must not represent WxAlerts output as an official warning.

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, INCLUDING THE API, API KEYS, MQTT FEEDS, AND ALL DATA, 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, TIMELINESS, COMPLETENESS, NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND AVAILABILITY. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE, ERROR-FREE, OR FREE OF HARMFUL COMPONENTS, OR THAT ANY ALERT WILL BE ISSUED OR DELIVERED.

The Service and alert delivery are provided on a best-effort basis. No service-level agreement (SLA) applies unless agreed in a separate written agreement signed by WX Alerts, Inc.

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

This Section applies equally to paid Supporter plans and Top-up packs. Buying a paid plan does not create any additional warranty; any separately signed SLA is governed by its own terms. Billing, automatic renewal, and cancellation are covered in Section 12.

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, INCLUDING ANY ALERT THAT IS LATE, WRONG, OR NOT DELIVERED, OR ANY SUSPENSION OR REVOCATION OF AN API KEY, 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; (d) your commercial redistribution of the Service in violation of Section 3; or (e) any commercial application, product, or service you build on or distribute with the API or MQTT. 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 your account page, from within the app (Settings → Account → Delete account) or at wxalerts.org/delete. Deleting your account revokes its API keys. Deletion requests are processed within 30 days. We may retain limited data where required by law or for security and abuse-prevention purposes, including records of API abuse, 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 and voice alerts. We place automated phone calls and send SMS text alerts only with your express written consent, and only to a mobile number you have entered on your own account and then confirmed with a code we sent to that handset. You give consent through a clear opt-in checkbox, presented at signup or in your account settings, that starts unchecked and is never bundled into accepting these Terms. The checkbox states that by checking it you agree to receive automated calls and texts from WX Alerts, Inc. Consent is voluntary and is not a condition of using WxAlerts: every NWS 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 withdraw consent at any time by unchecking the box in your account settings, removing your number from your account, or contacting support@wxalerts.org. Message frequency varies with weather conditions. Message and data rates may apply, depending on your mobile plan. SMS and voice delivery depend on your carrier and are subject to the same no-guarantee terms as every other channel (see Section 6). Never rely on a text message or phone call as your only means of receiving a warning.

SMS and voice alerts are included with the Supporter plan; the website, the apps and the API remain free of charge. We operate this program in accordance with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and applicable carrier registration requirements. We will not share your phone number with third parties for their marketing purposes.

12. Supporter Plans, Donations and Paid Features

Supporter plans. Optional paid Supporter plans and Top-up packs fund the Service and add features such as more monitored places and SMS and voice delivery. Every NWS alert stays free on every account. Prices, billing intervals, renewal, cancellation, and refund terms are presented at checkout and on wxalerts.org/pricing, and are accepted before purchase. Payments are processed by Stripe, subject to its terms.

Automatic renewal. Subscriptions renew automatically. By subscribing, you authorize us to charge your payment method each month on the same calendar day as your original signup date. Billing continues month-to-month until you cancel. You can manage or cancel your subscription at any time from your account. As a courtesy, Stripe sends a pre-billing email notification before each charge.

Failed payments; grace period and downgrade. If a subscription payment fails, you have a 14-day grace period after the failed payment to pay. If payment is not received by the end of that period, we downgrade the account rather than close it. The account stays active, but non-life-safety notifications (including non-life-safety SMS and voice notifications) and other paid features stop. Life-safety critical alerts, including NWS warnings and other life-safety alerts, are never blocked by any payment, plan, or downgrade gate. Every NWS alert stays free on every account. This payment-gate bypass does not guarantee delivery or override your notification choices or SMS and voice consent requirements; Sections 6, 7, and 11 still apply.

Refunds and cancellation. Payments are non-refundable except where required by law. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period, and access continues until then. There are no refunds for partial periods. Unused Top-up credits are non-refundable.

Donations. Donations to WX Alerts, Inc. are voluntary and non-refundable except as required by law, and are processed by third-party payment processors subject to their terms.

Tax status. 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. Supporter payments and donations are therefore not tax-deductible; consult a tax advisor rather than relying on this page.

13. Third-Party Services and Links

The Service links to and integrates with third-party sites, data sources, and services (including NOAA/NWS, data and mapping providers, cloud hosting and messaging platforms, payment processors, 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. No SLA applies unless agreed in a separate written agreement signed by WX Alerts, Inc.; otherwise 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 change these Terms at any time. When we do, we will notify you by email to the address on your account.

Notices to us. Send legal notices to the contact in Section 24, or by email to legal@wxalerts.org.

18. Termination

We may suspend or terminate your access to all or part of the Service, including any API key, 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 through 9, 14, 16, 20.2, 20.4, 21, and 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 Access and API Keys

Sections 20 and 21 of these Terms are the WxAlerts API Terms and govern programmatic access to the Service, together with our developer documentation at wxalerts.org/docs (the "Documentation"). Where the Documentation is more specific about the API access it describes, it governs that access; otherwise, these Terms control.

Key issuance and scope. API Keys (defined in Section 20.1) are issued only to signed-in account holders who accept these Terms. Keys for non-commercial, personal, or educational use are issued instantly through self-service, subject to the review requirements below. Eligible account holders may create keys from the Account page, choose each key's scopes and expiry, and hold up to the number of live keys stated in the Documentation (currently ten). Unless you choose otherwise, keys expire after 30 days. A key is shown once at creation and is stored by us only in hashed form, so a lost key must be revoked and replaced.

Acceptance at key issuance. Requesting an API Key is the moment you accept these Terms for your API use. Before any key is generated, the key request flow displays these Terms and requires you to click to accept them; no key is generated without that acceptance. We keep a timestamped record of each acceptance, including the version of the Terms accepted, tied to the specific key it authorized.

Organizational, commercial, or high-volume use requires our review and approval before key issuance. Elevated Rate Limits, the spotter placefile scope (Meteorologist accounts only), relay access, and access to restricted datasets also require review and approval. These review requirements apply even when the proposed use is non-commercial, personal, or educational. Request approval by email to support@wxalerts.org. We may ask you to describe your intended use, expected request volume, and how you will attribute the data, and we may decline any request, or limit or condition any key, at our discretion.

20.1 Definitions

• "API" means the WxAlerts application programming interfaces, including the REST API at api.wxalerts.org (public routes and key-only routes under /v1), the MQTT feeds at mqtt.wxalerts.org, spotter placefiles, and any successor interfaces.
• "API Key" means a unique credential (currently a string beginning wx_live_) that we issue to identify a Key Holder and authorize access to key-only routes and scopes of the API, along with any associated credential, token, or placefile key.
• "Key Holder" means the account holder, and any organization on whose behalf the account holder acts, to whom an API Key is issued.
• "API Data" means any data, content, or output obtained through the API, including relayed government data, WxAlerts products, and third-party data.
• "Rate Limits" means the request, burst, concurrency, connection, subscription, and volume limits and quotas that apply to API access, as documented or as communicated to you.

20.2 Key Ownership; License

API Keys are and remain the property of WX Alerts, Inc. We grant each Key Holder a limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable license to use its API Keys, and to access the API and use API Data, solely as permitted by these Terms and the Documentation. Nothing in this Section transfers ownership of any API Key, the API, or API Data to you, and all rights not expressly granted are reserved.

20.3 Confidentiality; No Transfer or Sharing

API Keys are confidential. You must keep them secret and secure; send them only in request headers as the Documentation describes (never in a URL, except the placefile key where the Documentation allows it); and never place them in a public repository, a web page, client-side code, a mobile application binary, or anywhere else a third party can extract them. You may not sell, share, lend, transfer, assign, or sublicense an API Key, or let anyone else use it, except your own employees or contractors working on your behalf under obligations at least as protective as these. Use a separate key for each application or environment where practical. Tell us promptly at security@wxalerts.org if a key is or may be exposed. We may rotate or revoke an exposed key without notice; that is a containment measure, not a penalty.

API Keys are for server-side use only. API calls using a key must come from the developer's own backend. Never embed keys in client applications, including mobile apps (such as Flutter apps), browser JavaScript, or desktop apps distributed to end users.

20.4 Responsibility for Use

You are responsible for all activity under your API Keys, including activity by anyone who obtained a key through your failure to secure it, and for the applications, products, and services you build or run with the API. You must identify your client with a descriptive User-Agent that includes a contact address, keep your registration details accurate, and comply with the attribution and downstream-compliance rules in Sections 20 and 21.

20.5 Rate Limits and Quotas

All API access is subject to Rate Limits. Current published figures are in the Documentation (see wxalerts.org/limits), and at the time of this revision are: about 60 requests per minute for unauthenticated clients (enforced per source address at 120 requests per minute with a burst of 60, across all public routes); about 300 requests per minute per API Key, with short bursts; and tighter limits on certain high-volume routes. MQTT limits are set out in Section 20.6. Any limits communicated to you at issuance or in writing also apply.

You must honor 429 Too Many Requests responses, Retry-After and RateLimit-* headers, back off on errors, and cache responses as the Documentation describes. Rate Limits may change at any time. We will try to give key holders advance notice of material reductions where we have contact details, except where an immediate change is needed to protect the Service, comply with law, or meet a data provider's requirements.

20.6 MQTT Feeds

Our MQTT feeds deliver NWS alerts and GOES GLM lightning as they happen. The limits below are the current technical limits of our broker at the time of this revision. They may change, and we will publish changes in the Documentation, in advance where practical.

• How to connect. Public access is only by MQTT over WebSocket with TLS, at wss://mqtt.wxalerts.org/mqtt (port 443).
• Login required. Anonymous connections are not accepted. The public wxalerts account published in the Documentation is subscribe-only; anything published with it is silently dropped.
• Service-wide connection limits. The broker accepts up to 5,000 concurrent WebSocket connections and up to 50 new connections per second. Both limits apply to the service as a whole, shared by everyone, not per IP address, per account, or per API Key. A connection may therefore be refused or delayed when the service is busy, including during severe weather.
• Subscriptions. Up to 20 subscriptions per connection.
• Message size. The maximum packet size is 2 MB. Alert map shapes (GeoJSON) in alert payloads are capped at 400 KB at ingest, so always check the official NWS product for the full warning area.
• Retained messages. Retained NWS alerts stay on the broker until our ingest clears them. Text products are cleared after about one hour. Lightning is not retained, so a newly connected client receives only flashes published after it connects. The broker holds up to 100,000 retained messages in total.
• No per-client message rate limits. We do not currently set per-client, per-IP, or per-API-Key message rate limits on MQTT. That is intentional, so that life-safety alerts are distributed without throttling. It is not permission to use shared capacity unreasonably: subscribe only to the topics you need, reconnect with backoff rather than in a tight loop, and open no more connections than your application needs.

Life-safety access. Life-safety critical alerts, including NWS warnings and other life-safety alerts, are never blocked by payment, plan, or downgrade gates. Technical capacity limits, security and abuse controls, and the delivery disclaimers in Sections 6 and 7 still apply; this is not a delivery guarantee.

Future limits. We reserve the right to change any of these limits, and to impose new per-account, per-key, or per-connection limits on connections, subscriptions, or messages, at any time. We will publish any such limits in the Documentation, and they apply from the date stated there, without requiring a further revision of these Terms. We may also disconnect, throttle, or block any client at any time to protect the Service or its users, as described in Sections 20.8 and 21.

The MQTT topic structure and these limits are expected to change as the service architecture evolves.

20.7 Permitted Use and Attribution

Subject to these Terms, you may use the API to build applications, visualizations, integrations, research tools, displays, and notification systems for personal, educational, research, or non-commercial community use. Commercial use requires our prior written permission (see Section 21). Wherever you display API Data, you must provide the attribution required by these Terms, visible to the people using what you built: credit the National Weather Service or NOAA for unaltered government data; credit WxAlerts for WxAlerts products and identify them as unofficial (for example, "Storm analysis by WxAlerts, not an official NWS product"); and include any provider attribution (for example, "© OpenStreetMap contributors, © Protomaps") that applies. Attribution may not suggest endorsement by, or partnership with, WxAlerts, NOAA, or the NWS.

20.8 Modification, Suspension, and Revocation

We may modify the scopes or Rate Limits of, suspend, or revoke any API Key, or block any client, at any time and with or without notice: for abuse or any breach of these Terms; where access threatens the stability, security, or integrity of the Service; where a key has been exposed; where required by law or a data provider; where a client cannot be identified and is behaving abnormally; or otherwise at our sole discretion. Where we suspend without notice, we will tell you the reason on request and, where the cause is fixable, what fixing it looks like. Keys also stop working if they expire or if the account is disabled or deleted. On revocation you must stop using the key and, on request, delete cached API Data other than what you must retain by law.

20.9 No SLA; API Changes and Deprecation

The API is provided "as is" and "as available" under Section 7. The Service and alert delivery, including API and MQTT delivery, are provided on a best-effort basis. No SLA applies unless agreed in a separate written agreement signed by WX Alerts, Inc. Except as agreed in that signed writing, there is no uptime, latency, or delivery guarantee. Endpoints, response formats, field meanings, scopes, and Rate Limits may change, and endpoints may be deprecated or withdrawn. For breaking changes to documented endpoints, we will give at least 30 days' advance notice through the Documentation and to key holders where we have contact details, where practicable, except for security, legal, or upstream-source changes. Build defensively and do not depend on undocumented behavior.

21. API Anti-Abuse Rules and Enforcement

WxAlerts runs on donations and volunteer time, and every request costs money that would otherwise keep warnings flowing. These rules keep the API available for everyone. They apply to keyed and unkeyed access.

21.1 Prohibited Conduct

You may not, and may not help or allow anyone else to:

1. Exceed or evade limits. Scrape, crawl, or access the Service or API by automated means beyond the documented Rate Limits, or scrape any part of the Service that is not exposed as a documented API endpoint or feed. This includes using multiple API Keys, multiple accounts, rotating keys, rotating IP addresses or proxies, or distributing requests across clients to exceed or evade a limit that applies to you. It also includes opening MQTT connections or subscriptions beyond what your application needs in order to use up shared broker capacity.
2. Resell or redistribute. Resell, sublicense, rent, lease, or redistribute API access or API Data, or offer the API as a service of your own (proxied, mirrored, rebranded, or relayed), without our prior written permission, beyond the in-application redistribution these Terms allow. Running a relay or broker that re-serves our feeds requires our written permission.
3. Build competing commercial services. Use the API or API Data to build, train, or operate a commercial product or service that competes with or substitutes for the Service or the API, including bulk mirroring and training a model on Service output for redistribution as a competing product, without our prior written permission.
4. Bypass security. Attempt to bypass, disable, or interfere with authentication, access controls, scopes, Rate Limits, CORS or other technical restrictions, or blocks or revocations.
5. Probe without authorization. Probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of the Service or API, including automated vulnerability scanning or load testing, without our prior written authorization. Good-faith security research is welcome; report security issues to support@wxalerts.org first.
6. Share keys. Share, publish, sell, or transfer an API Key, or use a key issued to someone else.
7. Misuse data. Remove or obscure attribution; present API Data as an official NWS, NOAA, or government warning; or use API Data in violation of Section 3.1.

21.2 Consequences

If we believe you have violated this Section, we may, at our discretion and without liability to you, take any one or more of the following steps, with or without prior notice:

• Throttling or reducing your Rate Limits;
• Suspension of your API Keys, account, or access;
• Key revocation;
• Permanent ban of you, your accounts, your organization, and associated clients, keys, or addresses from the API or the Service;
• requiring you to delete API Data obtained in violation of these Terms, and to confirm in writing that you have done so;
• legal action, including seeking injunctive relief, damages, and referral to law enforcement where conduct may violate laws governing unauthorized computer access.

We will generally start with the lightest step that fixes the problem, and suspension for stability is not a judgment about you, but we are not required to escalate in order, and we may act immediately where the Service or its users are at risk. Our choice not to act in one case does not waive our right to act in another.

Mutual attorneys' fees. The prevailing party in any action or arbitration under these Terms is entitled to recover reasonable attorneys' fees and costs.

22. 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.

23. Governing Law; Arbitration; Class Action Waiver

Except as provided in Section 2.1 for users under 15, these Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Florida, without regard to conflict-of-law principles.

Binding arbitration and class action waiver. The following provisions work together as one unit.

(a) Arbitration first. Except as provided in Section 2.1 for users under 15, any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service will be resolved by binding individual arbitration held in Milton, Santa Rosa County, Florida, before either party files in any court. Arbitration will be administered by the American Arbitration Association under its Consumer Arbitration Rules. Fees are allocated under those rules, and WX Alerts, Inc. pays consumer fees beyond the filing fee as those rules require. Judgment on the arbitration award may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction.

(b) Class action waiver. To the maximum extent permitted by law, you and WX Alerts, Inc. agree that any dispute, whether in arbitration or in court, will be conducted only on an individual basis and not as a class, consolidated, or representative action.

(c) If arbitration is unenforceable. If a court finds this arbitration clause unenforceable as to a dispute, that dispute will proceed in court as set out under "Venue" below, and the class action waiver in (b) still applies to that dispute to the maximum extent permitted by law. If the class action 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.

Venue. Any dispute that is not arbitrated, and any action to enforce an arbitration award, 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.

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

23.1 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 and Community Guidelines (each as applicable), and any written agreement we sign with you, constitute the entire agreement between you and WX Alerts, Inc. regarding the Service and supersede all prior agreements on the subject. If a signed written agreement conflicts with these Terms, the signed agreement controls.
• No waiver. Our failure to enforce any provision is not a waiver of it.
• Assignment. You may not assign these Terms, your account, or any API Key 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

• General inquiries and key requests: support@wxalerts.org
• Legal notices: legal@wxalerts.org
• Security and exposed keys: security@wxalerts.org
• Vulnerability reports: support@wxalerts.org
• Abuse and community reports: abuse@wxalerts.org
• Privacy and data requests: privacy@wxalerts.org
• Accessibility: accessibility@wxalerts.org