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Read. Understand. Apply.
The Warn Room blogs apply 70 years of research to the practice of alerts and warnings. We show how evidence-based changes to message content, style, and structure can create more effective warnings.

Warning Gallery
Helping you Improve Wireless Emergency Alerts!
Some Wireless Emergency Alerts are exemplary in their construction and inclusion of content. Others are not. Risk communicators can learn from each other in order to improve their messaging when it really matters.
Come back frequently for more examples.


Complete messages with room for improvement
WEAs issued 3/22/23 These messages are complete and include stylistic choices to increase attention (use of ALL CAPS for GO and EVACUATE)...

Jeannette Sutton
Mar 22, 2023


The monthly test...
WEA sent 3/22/2023 Alert originators are required by IPAWS to conduct regular tests of their system to ensure that it is operational and...

Jeannette Sutton
Mar 21, 2023


Is it time to talk about WEA policy?
Alerts sent on 3/10/23 to West Hollywood, followed by all of L.A. County The Warn Room resources and commentary have been primarily...

Jeannette Sutton
Mar 10, 2023


It's wordy, but polite
WEA sent 2/24/2023 Some alerts and warnings warrant a great amount of detail to help message receivers understand the threat and what...

Jeannette Sutton
Feb 24, 2023


Lead with fear?
New Palestine, Ohio Train Derailment. February 3-6, 2023 The messages sent to alert the Village of New Palestine, OH were absolutely...

Jeannette Sutton
Feb 9, 2023


Cancellation messages
WEA sent 1/31/2022 Cancellation messages, also called "all-clear" or "post-alert messages," have been under-studied by warning...

Jeannette Sutton
Jan 31, 2023


When is it software; when is it knowledge?
We've seen a lot of WEAs that are missing content in the message that is delivered to the phone... but sometimes, when we take a look at...

Jeannette Sutton
Jan 16, 2023


Cheeky humor...
WEA sent 1/4/2023 Recent research on the use of humor for crisis communication has shown some mixed responses. Generally it has focused...

Jeannette Sutton
Jan 4, 2023


Reaching Multi-lingual Communities
WEA sent 1/4/23 by Santa Barbara County EM Communicating with limited-English speaking populations MUST be a priority for risk...

Jeannette Sutton
Jan 4, 2023


When to use a URL for more information...
WEA sent 1/4/2023 In 2019 the FCC approved WEA 2.0, allowing alert originators to add a URL to their WEA message text. The reasoning...

Jeannette Sutton
Jan 4, 2023


The problem of the unnamed hazard
WEA sent 12/17/2022 Shelter in place, and its cousin evacuate now, are orders that are frequently included in WEAs as well as the Common...

Jeannette Sutton
Dec 17, 2022


Incomplete & confusing messages cause more confusion
WEA sent 12/15/2022 Wireless Emergency Alerts frequently serve as the channel to reach populations in "the last mile," that is, those who...

Jeannette Sutton
Dec 15, 2022


Two 360-character WEA's delivering 90-character content
WEAs sent 12/9/2022 In November, 2019, the FEMA-IPAWS program rolled out "WEA 2.0" which increased the message character count from 90 to...

Jeannette Sutton
Dec 9, 2022


When a WEA includes "response" information
WEA sent 12/3/2022 While not a recommendation backed by empirical research, some WEAs include content about what the responding...

Jeannette Sutton
Dec 3, 2022


Sometimes a complete warning will include a second message.
WEA sent 11/26/2022 While researchers and practitioners recommend including an expiration time in the warning message, when an incident...

Jeannette Sutton
Nov 26, 2022


Order lifted...water is safe
WEA sent 11/17/2022 This is an example of a beautiful post-alert message. It is complete, includes all of the necessary content, and...

Jeannette Sutton
Nov 17, 2022


Does "until further notice" mean another notice will follow?
WEA sent 11/15/2022. While it is understandable that alert originators would prefer to limit their use of WEA to prevent over-alerting (a...

Jeannette Sutton
Nov 15, 2022


The importance of message consistency.
Top WEA sent 11/4/2022 1:23 pm CDT Bottom WEA sent 11/4/2022 1:20 pm CDT External message consistency is just as important as internal...

Jeannette Sutton
Nov 3, 2022


An Inconsistent Message
WEA sent 10/29/22 at 6:50 am An internally consistent message will not include contents that are contradictory, In this example, we see...

Jeannette Sutton
Oct 29, 2022


When the hazard isn't named...
WEA sent 10/24/2022 @ 1:22 am When a hazard isn't named and a protective action is recommended, message receivers are likely to delay. A...

Jeannette Sutton
Oct 23, 2022
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