1. National Weather Service Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) Update
Important improvements and changes to better serve CAP consumers, save lives, and aid decision support.

2. NWS CAP Highlights Enhancements and fixes
CAP v1.2 becomes operational April 30, 2017
Improvements to CAP v1.2 access via the Internet
CAP v1.1 to be terminated no sooner than September 1, 2017
New severe weather CAP parameters in CAP v1.2
Updated documentation

3. Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) v.1.2 Enhancements and fixes
Issue
Impact
Level of Effort
Classification
Status
1. WMO Products and headlines are not parsed correctly and/or data is missing in output
Results in over warning for some Flash Floods and fails to align the header to the watch / warning / advisory information in the body of the product
80 hours / IRIS & HCE
Bug / along with enhancements
Fixed (8/22/16)
2. CAP message does not properly display precautionary / preparedness information that is listed in the WMO message
CAP has missing or incorrectly placed
product content
40 hours / IRIS decoder and HCE
Bug
Fixed
(9/19/16)
3. Duplication of messages on EAS if warning is received at EAS broadcast station via both NWR and IPAWS CAP Message
Multiple messages are sent for the same
watch, warning, advisory (FEMA issue) with both HCE and NWR
Test first to determine LOE
Out of scope; more than just CAP
4. Alerts are not distributed or are inadequately distributed for some watch, warning, advisories that have multi-line VTEC codes
Affects mostly hydro products but has
occurred with dust storms, winter weather,
tropical, and heat-related products
40 hours/ IRIS decoder
(4/4/17)
5. CAP output is not generated for some OCONUS and NCEP products. Not all information is contained in the product as expected by the IRIS Decoder
Affects tsunami products, hurricane local statements, Alaska Region WFO products. Note: hard-coded fix implemented for NTWC and PTWC
40 hours/ IRIS
HLS fixed
TSU fixed
6. During the process to add WMO headers to the CAP messages, the processing fails resulting in messages failing to be disseminated
When the process to add WMO headers fails,
the CAP messages are not written to TGFTP
and are not sent to NOAAport. This does not
impact IPAWS.
40 hours / HCE
7. CAP messages for Tsunami Warnings may have missing fields due to non-standard formatting of the original WMO message
Tsunami watch/warning CAP messages
affect WEA users only. CAP does not include
description and instruction elements for other
users.
16-40 hours / IRIS
8. The CAP messages do not contain all the WMO-formatted parameter elements
Customers are not able to always reproduce
headlines and other data currently in the
WMO products from CAP v1.2
120 hours / IRIS & HCE

4. Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) v.1.2 Enhancements and fixes
Issue
Impact
Level of Effort
Classification
Status
9. More efficient and accurate parsing of UGC codes, including mixed UGCs found in Tsunami Warnings
Faster processing of the CAP; fixes possible bug in TSU CAP messages.
Bug / along with enhancements
Fixed
4/4/17
10. River Flood Warning parsed properly
Description field in CAP for river flood warnings didn’t display all information due to unique formatting of base WMO messages.
Bug
11. New fields for convective warnings
Includes storm motion, location, and time, hail size, wind gust potential, tornado potential, and tornado damage potential.
Enhancement
12. Support for Non-Weather Emergency Messages
NWEMS created by NWS offices will be transformed into CAP and sent to all dissemination systems except IPAWS.
13. More accurate generation of FIPS and SAME codes
Some public zone based alerts may have not had all FIPS (county codes) and SAME codes expressed.
14. Better capturing of description tags for certain alert types
Improved parsing the WMO products and population of the CAP description tag for certain alert types.
/Enhancement
15. Support of Storm Surge Watch, Storm Surge Warning and Extreme Wind Warning alerts
Support for SSWW products. Use of the EWW SAME code instead of TOR after FCC approval of EWW.
16. Addition of polygons for Storm Surge Warning alerts that are not included in the WMO alerts
Addition of polygons based on CAT4/5 MOM data added for SS.W alerts. Greatly reduces over warning for WEA.

5. Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) v.1.2 Enhancements and fixes
Issue
Impact
Level of Effort
Classification
Status
17. Addition of NWS_Headline parameter.
All headlines expressed in a WMO alert are now populated in a custom parameter to allow partners better replicate behavior of the WMO alerts.
Enhancement
Fixed
4/4/17
18. Fixed polygons for Southern California in Tsunami Warnings
TSU alerts for southern California will include a fixed polygon coordinated with local emergency managers. This will greatly reduce over warning for a WEA message (tens of millions of phones)
Oct 2017
19: In planning: Activation of WEA for high impact Severe Thunderstorm warnings based on certain criteria
Activate WEA if winds or hail size reach certain thresholds. Long standing issue from 2012 Mid-Atlantic Derecho. NWS collecting feedback and investing science requirements
2018
20. In planning: Reactivation of WEA for Tornado Emergencies
WEA does not activate for TOR updates. This would reactivate WEA if a TOR emergency is issued with enhanced WEA wording.
May 2017
21. In planning: Support the new Snow Squall Warning alert
Activate WEA for this new product.
22. Support for 360 character WEA messages
2017 FCC Rule and Order requires cell carriers to support 360 character WEA messages for LTE/G5 devices. NWS monitoring industry standards discussions to understand final requirements.
23. Support for Hazard Simplification changes
Tracking changes related to the NWS Hazard Simplification project, understanding impact and opportunities.
Oct 2017 – on going
24. Discussion: FCC Rule and Order requires cell carriers to support Spanish language WEA messages.
Must determine extent to which NWS will provide Spanish language WEA. NWS WEA messages are currently pre-determined using a template for each alert type, but custom messages might be possible with next generation alert authoring tools (i.e., AWIPS Hazard Services).

6. CAP v1.2 Operational April 30, 2017
Means NWS alerts in CAP v1.2 format considered equivalent to NWS alerts issued in traditional alphanumeric formats
Provided through multiple dissemination channels
Web
JavaScript Object Notation (JSON)-based API endpoints
http and ftp file listings
NOAAPORT satellite broadcast
New severe weather related parameters from our traditional WMO alerts
Some Non-Weather Emergency Messages (NWEMs) in CAP v1.2 format

7. CAP v1.2 via the Internet
At through at least September 1, until moved when CAP v1.1 terminated at alerts.weather.gov
New Search feature
Updated documentation
Access CAP via API ( which is great for application use.

8. New Search Option Build custom searches
Can search the past 7 days of (inactive) CAP messages

9. Updated CAP v1.2 Documentation
FAQ
CAP v1.2 Guide
CAP v1.2 Transition Guide
API Reference
Change Log
Limitations

10. CAP via JSON-based API endpoints
Format: for archive (past 7 days of alerts) for active alerts Examples: (archive of Wyoming alerts) (active Wyoming alerts with CAP urgency of immediate)

11. JSON Output

12. 7 Days of Raw CAP in http and ftp File Listings
ftp://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/SL.us008001/DF.xml/DC.cap/
sort

13. CAP via NOAAPORT Satellite Broadcast
NOAAPORT user page at
One-way C-band satellite broadcast in near-real time via commercial provider
CAP under WMO Heading XOaa5i KWBC
aa is US, AK, CA, GM, HW, or ZS
i is a value from 0 to 9

14. New Severe Weather Parameters
eventMotionDescription
windGust
hailSize
tornadoDetection
tornadoDamageThreat
waterspoutDetection
<parameter>
<valueName>tornadoDamageThreat</valueName>
<value>CATASTROPHIC</value>
</parameter>

15. For More Information About NWS CAP
Service Change Notices at Technical issues regarding access and connectivity NWS IDP Operations Center or (301) Other non-operational technical questions Robert Bunge or (301) Meteorological or hydrologic content in CAP messages Mike Gerber or (301)