A Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) is a short emergency message sent by authorized federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial public alerting authorities to mobile devices such as cell phones and pagers. The WEA system is an essential part of Americas emergency preparedness and has been used more than 84,000 times since its launch in 2012 to warn the public about dangerous weather, missing children, and other critical situations.

WEAs are messages that warn the public of an impending natural or human-made disaster, and they can be sent to mobile devices when people may be in harms way, without the need to download an app or subscribe to a service. Authorized public safety officials send WEA alerts through FEMAs Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) to participating wireless carriers, which then push the alerts to compatible mobile devices in the affected area.

There are three types of warnings that will trigger a WEA: Presidential Alerts, Imminent Threat Alerts, and Amber Alerts. Presidential Alerts are a special class of alerts only sent during a national emergency. Imminent Threat Alerts warn of severe weather conditions, geological events, or other threats to public safety and welfare. Amber Alerts are issued to help law enforcement find and rescue abducted children.

WEAs are accompanied by a unique attention signal and appear on the screen of the recipients handset as a text-like message. The alerts are short and can provide immediate, life-saving information. Wireless companies volunteer to participate in WEA, which is the result of a unique public/private partnership between the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the FCC, and the United States wireless industry in order to enhance public safety.