Official NWS alert data
Enter a five-digit ZIP code for a direct answer based on the National Weather Service active-alert point feed. No login. No email gate.
Location check
Ready
Watch conditions can change quickly. Keep official alerts enabled on your phone.
National orientation
Know the difference
A Severe Thunderstorm Watch covers a broad area where atmospheric conditions favor storms capable of damaging wind or large hail. It does not mean every place in the box will get a storm.
A Severe Thunderstorm Warning is more specific and urgent. NWS radar or trained observers indicate a dangerous storm is happening or about to happen in the warned area.
Five-minute readiness
A watch is a preparation window. Conditions may remain quiet at your location, but storms can develop or intensify quickly. Use the time to reduce friction if a warning arrives.
Read official NWS thunderstorm safety guidance →Keep Wireless Emergency Alerts on and use a NOAA Weather Radio where available.
Choose an interior room on the lowest floor, away from windows.
Avoid being caught far from shelter if a warning is issued.
Bring in lightweight items only while conditions are safe.
A watch can be replaced by more urgent county-level warnings.
The Storm Prediction Center coordinates watch areas when the larger weather pattern can support organized severe thunderstorms. The watch may span parts of several states and last for hours. Local National Weather Service offices then issue alert products for the counties and zones they serve. That is why a national polygon is useful for orientation but not enough for an address-level answer.
This checker first geocodes the center point of a ZIP code, then asks the NWS active-alert service whether a Severe Thunderstorm Watch applies at that point. ZIP codes cover areas rather than exact addresses, so people near a boundary should compare the result with local alerts and weather.gov. The site shows affected-area text from NWS so you can recognize the counties and states named in the official product.
“No active watch found” means the official NWS query succeeded and did not return this specific event for the ZIP centroid at that moment. It does not mean thunderstorms are impossible, that no other alert exists, or that a warning cannot be issued quickly. Some severe storms occur outside a watch, and other hazards such as flash flooding, tornadoes, or extreme wind use different alert types.
If the data source, geocoder, or network cannot be verified, Thunderstorm Watch displays an unknown/error state instead of an inactive result. That distinction is central to the product: failure must be visible in safety-related information.
Supplemental multi-location monitoring
$29/year annual auto-renewing plan
Planned event-driven email when a Severe Thunderstorm Watch starts, materially changes, or ends after fresh official observations confirm the transition.
Phase 1: the secure account and billing foundation is deployed, but production checkout remains disabled and saved-location monitoring is not live yet.
Questions
It means conditions are favorable for severe thunderstorms in and near the watch area. Stay informed and be prepared to act if a warning is issued.
A watch means severe storms are possible over a broad area. A warning means severe weather is occurring or imminent in a more specific area and protective action is needed.
No. This is a supplemental utility using public data. Rely on Wireless Emergency Alerts, NOAA Weather Radio, local authorities, and weather.gov for life-safety decisions.
Successful API responses are cached briefly, roughly 30–60 seconds, and the page displays the official-data timestamp. If data cannot be verified, the result is shown as unknown rather than inactive.