To enable Apple Weather alerts, open Weather, tap the location list, open More > Notifications, and enable Severe Weather or Next-Hour Precipitation for Current Location or a saved city. Allow Weather notifications when prompted.
For alerts based on your current position, Apple also requires the appropriate location access: Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services > Weather > Always, with Precise Location on. Saved-city alerts and current-location alerts are separate choices.
Understand the two alert types
Next-Hour Precipitation provides supported alerts about rain or snow expected to start or stop soon. It is not a universal daily forecast notification, and availability is limited by region.
Severe Weather concerns available severe-weather alerts for the chosen location. It does not mean the phone can guarantee advance warning of every dangerous event. Coverage, connectivity, permissions, and the weather information provider all matter.
Apple's Weather feature availability page lists next-hour precipitation forecasts and notifications for Australia, Ireland, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Severe-weather information has a different availability list and depends on local authorities and providers. Check that page if an option is absent for a location.
Set up current-location access
- Open Settings.
- Tap Privacy & Security, then Location Services.
- Make sure Location Services is enabled as appropriate for your intended use.
- Tap Weather.
- Choose Always for current-location weather notifications.
- Turn on Precise Location.
“Always” permits Weather to use location when you are not actively viewing the app. Review that access choice if you prefer to monitor saved cities instead. A current-location setup and a list of manually saved places solve different needs.
Precise Location helps associate alerts with the relevant area. Approximate location may not provide the access needed for Apple's current-location notification setup. Do not assume merely seeing a forecast in Weather means background alert permissions are complete.
Enable the notifications in Weather
- Open the Weather app.
- Tap the list button to display your locations.
- Tap More, then Notifications.
- Allow notifications if the app asks for permission.
- Under Current Location, enable Severe Weather, Next-Hour Precipitation, or both, where available.
- Under Your Locations, select a saved city and enable the available alert types for that city.
- Finish with the Done control and review the saved choices.
Apple's Weather notification guide describes the current setup. Buttons may be represented by icons rather than full text labels, so the list and More controls can look different from older screenshots.
If you travel, current-location alerts follow the location permissions and coverage involved. A saved-city alert continues to concern the selected city; it does not automatically become an alert for wherever you are standing.
Choose saved cities carefully
Weather can contain home, work, travel destinations, and other places you have added. Review the notification switches for each city rather than assuming one master selection applies to the whole list.
If a city you care about is missing, add it to Weather's location list first, then return to Notifications. Search carefully when several places share a name, and inspect the selected location before enabling its alerts.
Remove places you no longer want to monitor or turn off only their notification types. Our guide to removing a city from Weather explains the list-management action. Deleting an unwanted destination can also make the notification list easier to review.
On versions with Suggested Locations, Apple provides an additional severe-weather option associated with places you are likely to visit. The current guide describes extra settings involving Significant Locations & Routes and Weather's Suggested Locations access. That is optional and involves additional location use; it is not required merely to monitor a saved city. Review Apple's version-specific instructions before enabling that broader feature.
Check how notifications are delivered
The switches inside Weather are only part of the setup. Open Settings > Notifications > Weather and confirm Allow Notifications is on. Review the available Lock Screen, banner, notification-center, and sound choices for the way you want to notice alerts.
If notifications arrive quietly or later than expected, review Focus and any scheduled notification summary that applies to Weather. A Focus may limit when notifications are presented. Allow Weather in the relevant Focus if its alerts belong among the notifications you want to receive during that mode.
Do not assume ordinary Weather notifications override Silent mode, every Focus, or all sound settings. Available options and presentation behavior differ from emergency broadcasts. If you use Apple Watch, also consider where notifications are being presented when the phone is locked.
For notification preview privacy, see showing or hiding messages on the Lock Screen. Those presentation settings do not add weather coverage where the feature is unavailable.
Weather alerts and government emergency alerts are separate
Government and emergency alerts use separate controls from Apple Weather. Where supported, their settings appear near the bottom of Settings > Notifications, and available categories vary by country and carrier. Some required alerts cannot be disabled.
Apple's government and emergency alert guide explains the requirements and regional differences. Turning off a Weather city's precipitation alert is not the same as turning off government alerts, and enabling Weather does not replace the government's alert system.
Use Weather as one source of information rather than a guarantee that every emergency will generate a timely notification. For a serious local weather event, follow the relevant local weather authority and emergency instructions. A phone's connection and settings can affect what reaches you.
Troubleshooting missing alerts
Next-Hour Precipitation is missing
Check the selected city's region against Apple's availability list. A forecast for a city does not imply every notification feature is supported there. Also make sure you are in the Weather app's Notifications settings rather than only the system's general notification page.
Current Location is unavailable
Review Always and Precise Location for Weather in Location Services, then reopen Weather's notification choices. Confirm that you are enabling the Current Location controls, not only a saved city's switches.
I get alerts for the wrong city
Inspect Your Locations and the city names in the notification settings. A saved city is independent of your present position. Turn off unwanted destinations or remove them from the list.
The switches are on, but nothing arrives
There may be no qualifying event in the monitored area. Check the location, region availability, notification permission, Focus, delivery settings, and internet connection. Restart or update the phone if those checks are correct and the app still behaves unexpectedly.
Avoid using the absence of an alert as proof that no dangerous weather exists. Notification thresholds, forecast uncertainty, regional coverage, and delivery conditions can all affect the result.
Will a Weather widget enable alerts?
No. A Weather widget displays information on a screen. Notification permissions and per-location switches must still be set separately.
Turn alerts off or adjust them later
Return to Weather > location list > More > Notifications and turn off the unwanted alert type for the relevant location. This is more selective than disabling all Weather notifications in Settings.
If you no longer want background current-location monitoring, review Weather's Location Services permission separately. Changing it can affect current-location alerts and other location-dependent Weather features. Saved-city monitoring remains a different configuration to review.
Finish by checking the saved switches and delivery preferences. You can verify those settings immediately; actual arrival still depends on an eligible weather event and supported coverage, so do not manufacture a test alert or wait for a real storm just to confirm the menu choices.
Matthew Burleigh has been writing tech tutorials since 2008. His writing has appeared on dozens of different websites and been read hundreds of millions of times.
After receiving his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Computer Science he spent several years working in IT management for small businesses. However, he now works full time writing content online and creating websites.
His main writing topics include iPhones, Microsoft Office, Google Apps, Android, and Photoshop, but he has also written about many other tech topics as well.