Alerts

You can set alerts for your desktop and, if purchased, remote alerts for your mobile device to let you know when certain weather events are approaching or affecting your locations. With the additional purchase of remote alerting, each of your locations can be set to alert separate email or text message addresses. Email addresses may be group addresses to reach more employees.

Alerts

Alert Criteria

Alert Descriptions

Manage Alerts

Remote Alerting (optional purchase)

Alerts for your locations will continue to be generated even if you are not signed in to MxVision WeatherSentry Online®, however you will not receive notification via the flashing View Alert button or audible alarm.

Important Software Update

All locations created will automatically use the alert criteria setting of your default location, therefore for the sake of efficiency, you may wish to set your default alert criteria prior to creating additional locations. Alert criteria and recipient assignments for individual locations can be edited at any time.

Select Alert Criteria

Select the criteria which when exceeded, will generate an alert in MxVision WeatherSentry Online® and cause the View Alerts button to flash red. If selected, an audible alarm will also be sounded on your desktop. If you are under administrator control your Account Administrator will determine your alerting preferences.

Note: Storm Attributes and PrecipTimer® alerts may be available to some Canadian locations located within the footprint of US radar. NWS alerts are not available outside of the US and its territories.

Within the Settings Menu, click the Alerts Menu option and the Alert Criteria submenu option.
Choose a Location and select an Audible Alert.
Note: You must have sound capability on your PC to play alarm sounds. If you have selected an audible alarm and the test sound is not heard, you may need to install Active X. Typically a banner appears across the top of your screen with instructions.
Enable the alert types that you wish to receive. For some alert types you will need to enter one or more values. Each location may have its own criteria with the exception of Lightning and PrecipTimer® settings.
Select a lead time between one and 12 hours in the future.
If you have purchased the Remote Alerting option you may use the Add recipients... link to assign recipients to this Location.
Click Save Changes to save the alert settings.

Excessive alerts that add little additional value come from setting up alerts on too many locations, or setting up too many different types of alerts. Below are the alert rules that should be considered when setting your alert criteria.

Forecast Alerts:

A forecast alert is expired when there are two consecutive hours in which that condition is no longer in the forecast. The expiration allows for a new alert to be sent if the condition is again met.
Example: A temporary break of two hours or less in a forecasted precipitation event will NOT cause an alert to be sent a second time. However, after two hours with no precipitation in the forecast the event will be treated as a new event and will generate an alert on the first occurrence. Subsequent occurrences will not generate an alert.
When the forecast condition persists, the alert is not re-issued.

Observed Alerts:

Observed alerts are reset when there are at least two consecutive hours in which that condition is not observed.
When the observed condition persists, the alert is not re-issued.

Alert Type Descriptions

Alert data will be reported in either English or Metric units as determined by your preference setting, excluding National Weather Service (NWS) based alerts. NWS advisories, watches and warnings will always use English units regardless of the preference setting.

Following are the alert types available:

Storm Attributes	NEXRAD radar based alerts are available to US locations including Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico. Storm attribute alerts may be available to some Canadian locations located within 124nm of a US NEXRAD radar site.
Lightning	Lightning alerting is available within your purchased region. Lightning data is an optional purchase.
Precipitation	PrecipTimer® alerts are available to locations covered by the US composite radar which includes the continental US and Puerto Rico. Some Canadian locations near the US/CA border may fall within the US composite radar footprint.
Hurricane Center	Available to all locations.
Forecast Conditions	Available to all locations.
NWS Alerts	Available only to locations in the continental US, Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico.
Observed Conditions	Available to all locations.

Note: Alerts will retain the unit preferences of when they were generated. If an alert is generated and received while using Metric preferences, that alert will remain in Metric units even if the preferences are later changed to English units.

Manage Alerts

Remote alerting is not necessary to view the alert status of your locations on your PC. The View Alerts button within the MxVision WeatherSentry Online® interface will flash red when your criteria has been met. The View Alerts button will continue to flash until the alert is archived or deleted. If an alert is not archived or deleted it will automatically be removed after five days.

View Alerts

More details and options for each alert are available by clicking the link within the alert listing.

The alert detail provides additional information.

Alert detail

The detail is displayed along with three options:

	Click Mark as Archived to archive an alert for future reference. An archived alert will remain available for up to two years.
	Click Delete to remove the alert from the list.
	After viewing an alert click Back to go back to the list of alerts.

You can view a list of the archived alerts by selecting View Archived Alerts from the Alert Status menu. You can also choose to view only the new alerts or view all alerts.

Remote Alerting

Remote Alerting is an optional purchase. Contact your sales representative for details.

Your mobile device can receive alerts generated from the criteria which was set in the Alert Criteria page. You may use any device that can receive an email or text message, including cellular phones, alphanumeric pagers, and desktop email. Recipients can be assigned to each alert location.

Within accounts under administrator control the setup process is available only to the Account Administrator.

Create a Recipient

You may create as many recipients as you like.

Click the Manage Recipients submenu option under the Alerts Menu option.
Click the New button below the Recipient list.
Enter an unique name for the device in the Recipient text field.
Select the Recipient Type; mobile phone or email.
Sending text messages via SMS Gateway is optional.
Enter the mobile phone number and select the provider.

OR
Enter the email address. Email addresses may be group addresses to reach more employees.
Always test your mobile/email address by clicking the Test button. You can do this at any time, even before saving this recipient listing.
You should receive a test email from accountsetup@meteorlogix.com.
Select the time zone for the location from the Time Zone drop down menu. If daylight-saving time is observed at the location enable Observe Daylight Savings Time.
Select either the No Quiet Period or Specify Quiet Period radio button.
If Specify Quiet Period is selected, set the starting and ending times for up to two quiet periods. Then select the period (daily (Sun-Sat), weekday (Mon-Fri), weekend (Sat/Sun), night and weekend, day of the week) from the Period drop down menu. In this example non-severe alerts will only be received between 6AM and 5PM, Monday - Friday.

Note: You can still receive severe weather alerts during the quiet periods by enabling Severe Weather Warning Override. If you enable this option you will still receive notice of any issued National Weather Service warning or Severe Hail, Mesocyclone, and Tornado Vortex Signature alerts.
Click the Save Changes button.
If necessary, click Delete to remove a highlighted recipient.
Select recipients from the Add Recipients link in the Alert Criteria screen. When the criteria is met an email or text message will be sent to all recipients assigned to the location. The alert will also be viewable under the View Alerts button within the MxVision WeatherSentry Online® interface.