When visiting this web page from a mobile device, it will prompt the user to provide their location using a standard browser geolocation API. This location data is then cross-referenced against active US National Weather Service severe weather alerts. The majority of these alerts since 2007 have been outlined based on geographic polygons rather than political subdivisions or county-equivalents. The user is then informed whether their device's reported location is inside one of these warning polygons. If so, links are shown to a companion web app running at map.wx4.me.

“Respect the Polygon” is a phrase popularized by legendary Alabama television meteorologist James Spann. It is meant to remind his audience that forecasters at the National Weather Service are experts in their field, and if a given location is inside one of these storm-based warning polygons, there is a very good reason for it. Anyone inside the warning polygon should take action to protect themselves, their loved ones, and their property from natural hazards. This app is my effort to help people quickly determine whether they should take these actions.

The wx4.me and map.wx4.me web applications are open source and licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License 3.0. You are welcome to fork the Git repositories linked below for these applications and open pull requests to contribute improvements. These web applications are hosted on the Azure Static Web App service, so all operations must be client-side.

wx4.me: GitHub
map.wx4.me: GitHub

Drew Kirkman is a broadcast systems engineer with a longtime enthusiasm for weather and other technical interests.