| Alert | Met | Expected
Severe
Likely | w-nws.webmaster@noaa.gov |
⚠️ effectiveness.local_abbreviations — contains a local abbreviation (ON, ACROSS, FAR, OREGON, HOT, DRY, WINDY, FRIDAY, RED, FLAG, FROM, TO, WINDS, LOW, OWYHEE, VALE, BLM, BAKER, VALLEY, WHICH, FIRE, ZONES, TIMING) which may be unfamiliar to visitors or newcomers to the hazard area. |
⚠️ effectiveness.no_specific_area_geometry — at least one area lacks both a polygon and a circle — specific geometries allow more precise message delivery and can reduce alert deliveries to people not actually at risk. |
⚠️ effectiveness.no_instruction_actionable_with_time — instruction does not clearly specify a protective action to take, or does not specify the time by which protective action should be completed. |
|
| Update | Met | Expected
Severe
Likely | w-nws.webmaster@noaa.gov |
⚠️ effectiveness.local_abbreviations — contains a local abbreviation (ON, ACROSS, FAR, OREGON, HOT, DRY, WINDY, FRIDAY, RED, FLAG, FROM, TO, WINDS, LOW, OWYHEE, VALE, BLM, BAKER, VALLEY, WHICH, FIRE, ZONES, TIMING) which may be unfamiliar to visitors or newcomers to the hazard area. |
⚠️ effectiveness.no_specific_area_geometry — at least one area lacks both a polygon and a circle — specific geometries allow more precise message delivery and can reduce alert deliveries to people not actually at risk. |
⚠️ effectiveness.no_instruction_actionable_with_time — instruction does not clearly specify a protective action to take, or does not specify the time by which protective action should be completed. |
|
About This Report
This daily summary of global public warning activity is compiled from the IFRC Alert
Hub, which aggregates public emergency alerts issued in the Common Alerting Protocol
(CAP) format by official alerting authorities around the world. It covers a single 24-hour
period (UTC) and includes only those messages the Alert Hub received and
republished; coverage completeness and accuracy are not guaranteed. This report should never be
considered a substitute for official distributions of alerts.
This report is a personal project and is not sponsored or endorsed by IFRC or any national,
international, or corporate entity.
In addition to a daily recounting of global CAP activity, this report also
provides a qualitative review of CAP alerts, both for standards-compliance
and from an opinionated but evidence-based warning-effectiveness perspective. The
effectiveness principles are drawn from scientific research into what makes warning
messages yield desired results, filtered through my experience both as the architect
(some might say, "the instigator") of CAP and as a public-safety warning originator.
These principles (see below) are offered to encourage global adoption of warning best
practices, aimed at maximizing appropriate protective action by people at risk.
The author represents no nation, institution, or interest in providing this report.
The review here is offered as a personal initiative aimed at encouraging global adoption
of evidence- and experience-based best practices in warning message composition..
Art Botterell
Please address comments and suggestions to
art@botterell.net.
Message Effectiveness - Semantic Test Rules
The Global CAP Report applies the following recommendations for maximum warning
message effectiveness:
- usc_all_unknown — <urgency>, <severity> and <certainty> all
reported as Unknown. This usage makes categorization difficult for automated systems and
for displays that style alerts depending on one or more of these settings.
- no_headline — <headline> element is empty. CAP schema makes it optional but its
use is recommended, as many downstream renders use it as a primary label for the message.
- local_abbreviations — <description>, <instruction>, or <areaDesc>
element contains an unwhitelisted uppercase 2–6-letter token (e.g. JCOES). Such abbreviations
may be unfamiliar to travelers or newcomers to the local area. Whitelist
includes WMO / UN bodies, US federal agencies, US state codes, cardinal directions,
common time units, etc, The offending token is specified in the badge. .
- no_description_explains_effects — <description> text names the hazard but
does not describe the effects on people, property, or infrastructure.
Fires if description is empty, identical to headline, or shorter than 60 characters.
Anything that passes that gate goes to LLM for semantic check.
- no_instruction_actionable_with_time — <instruction> text lacks a
protective action recommendation, or lacks a specified time by which the protective action
should be completed. Fires if instruction is empty or contains no time reference
(clock time, within N minutes, by 3 PM, immediately, etc.). Anything that passes goes to
LLM for semantic check.
- no_specific_area_geometry — At least one block has neither a <polygon>
nor a <circle> value. Specific geometries are recommended to allow recise message
delivery and reduce alert deliveries to people not actually at risk ("spill")
<
- sender_not_registered — <sender> value is not known to WMO, IPAWS or other
registries and may not be correct attribution. Currently fires if value is empty, "unknown",
"n/a", or "test"