Does NWS Publish One List of All Alert Product Names?

Yes. The National Weather Service (NWS) publishes one complete, machine-readable enumeration of every official alert product name at https://api.weather.gov/alerts/types. It is a flat JSON array of names — nothing more — and the response itself does not carry a version number or a last-modified date.

This original record-reading guide is a general reading aid, not cited evidence. It does not depict a source record; the article text and source links provide the facts.

Key points

• The live list at https://api.weather.gov/alerts/types currently contains 111 names, 23 of which end in “Watch.”
• The JSON response is just the array of names — it does not carry its own version number or last-modified field.
• The companion documentation page, https://www.weather.gov/documentation/services-web-api, flags a specific reading trap: Tornado Watch content served through /alerts and /alerts/active is not the Storm Prediction Center’s SEL product text.
• That documentation page’s known-issues section is itself dated “Updated 3/24/2026,” even though the alert-type list it describes is not.

Where the master list lives

The single authoritative enumeration is the eventTypes array returned by https://api.weather.gov/alerts/types. As published, it reads in full:

“911 Telephone Outage, Administrative Message, Air Quality Alert, Air Stagnation Advisory, Ashfall Advisory, Ashfall Warning, Avalanche Advisory, Avalanche Warning, Avalanche Watch, Beach Hazards Statement, Blizzard Warning, Blowing Dust Advisory, Blowing Dust Warning, Blue Alert, Brisk Wind Advisory, Child Abduction Emergency, Civil Danger Warning, Civil Emergency Message, Coastal Flood Advisory, Coastal Flood Statement, Coastal Flood Warning, Coastal Flood Watch, Cold Weather Advisory, Dense Fog Advisory, Dense Smoke Advisory, Dust Advisory, Dust Storm Warning, Earthquake Warning, Evacuation Immediate, Extreme Heat Warning, Extreme Heat Watch, Extreme Cold Warning, Extreme Cold Watch, Extreme Fire Danger, Extreme Wind Warning, Fire Warning, Fire Weather Watch, Flash Flood Statement, Flash Flood Warning, Flash Flood Watch, Flood Advisory, Flood Statement, Flood Warning, Flood Watch, Freeze Warning, Freeze Watch, Freezing Fog Advisory, Freezing Spray Advisory, Frost Advisory, Gale Warning, Gale Watch, Hazardous Materials Warning, Hazardous Seas Warning, Hazardous Seas Watch, Hazardous Weather Outlook, Heat Advisory, Heavy Freezing Spray Warning, Heavy Freezing Spray Watch, High Surf Advisory, High Surf Warning, High Wind Warning, High Wind Watch, Hurricane Force Wind Warning, Hurricane Force Wind Watch, Hurricane Warning, Hurricane Watch, Hydrologic Outlook, Ice Storm Warning, Lake Effect Snow Warning, Lake Wind Advisory, Lakeshore Flood Advisory, Lakeshore Flood Statement, Lakeshore Flood Warning, Lakeshore Flood Watch, Law Enforcement Warning, Local Area Emergency, Low Water Advisory, Marine Weather Statement, Nuclear Power Plant Warning, Radiological Hazard Warning, Red Flag Warning, Rip Current Statement, Severe Thunderstorm Warning, Severe Thunderstorm Watch, Severe Weather Statement, Shelter In Place Warning, Short Term Forecast, Small Craft Advisory, Snow Squall Warning, Special Marine Warning, Special Weather Statement, Storm Surge Warning, Storm Surge Watch, Storm Warning, Storm Watch, Test, Tornado Warning, Tornado Watch, Tropical Cyclone Local Statement, Tropical Storm Warning, Tropical Storm Watch, Tsunami Advisory, Tsunami Warning, Tsunami Watch, Typhoon Warning, Typhoon Watch, Volcano Warning, Wind Advisory, Winter Storm Warning, Winter Storm Watch, Winter Weather Advisory” (https://api.weather.gov/alerts/types).

That is the entire published set: 111 names, 23 of them ending in “Watch.”

List limitations

Open the raw JSON response and you will find only the array shown above — no version field, no schema revision, no “last updated” timestamp attached to the list itself. If you need to know when this exact set of names was current, the response body will not answer that question for you.

Alert-feed reading caveat

The API’s documentation page carries a specific warning that matters if you go on to pull actual alert content using any of these names. Per the NWS documentation: “The /alerts and /alerts/active endpoints do NOT contain SPC’s SEL product language for Tornado Watches.” (https://www.weather.gov/documentation/services-web-api). In other words, seeing “Tornado Watch” in the type list, and later seeing a Tornado Watch record in the live alert feeds, does not mean you are reading the Storm Prediction Center’s own SEL text — the feed content is different from that source product.

The documentation page’s own date stamp

Unlike the type list, the documentation page that carries this warning is dated. Its known-issues section is stamped “Updated 3/24/2026” (https://www.weather.gov/documentation/services-web-api). That date belongs to the documentation page, not to the eventTypes array — the two are separate objects with separate (or, in the list’s case, absent) version markers.

What this article does not answer

This article covers only whether a single machine-readable list of alert names exists, where it lives, and whether it carries its own version marker. It does not define what any listed name means or the criteria that trigger it — each name traces back to its own product-specification directive, which this article does not cover. It does not say whether any of these alerts are currently in effect anywhere; the type list is a name catalog, not a live-conditions feed. It does not identify which record or date established any individual alert name — that lineage runs through each name’s own directive and Service Change Notice, addressed separately. And it offers no guidance on protective actions, hazard severity, or whether any alert currently applies to you.

Source links

https://api.weather.gov/alerts/types https://www.weather.gov/documentation/services-web-api