Federal, state, local, tribal and territorial public safety officials can send Non-Weather Emergency Messages (NWEMs) through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) to the National Weather Service (NWS) for broadcast over NOAA Weather Radio (NWR) All Hazards and other NWS dissemination systems.

This capability was reintroduced in 2021 as a redesign of the previous enhanced NWEM dissemination functionality developed in 2006 as the All-Hazards Emergency Message Collection System (HazCollect). The full capability of the system was never realized because NWS software became increasingly incompatible with the NWEMs forwarded to NWS by FEMA due to advances to the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) message format and the tools public safety officials use to author alerts.

In order to send NWEMs to NWS, public safety officials must first sign up to use IPAWS. This is a four step process that includes completion of IPAWS web-based training, selection of IPAWS compatible software, application for a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with IPAWS, and application for public alerting permissions. When a public safety official generates an alert in their software and wishes for the alert to reach the NWS, they must select "NWEM" (or similar term used by the software) as a destination for the alert.

Public safety officials who are new to the NWS NWEM dissemination service should also coordinate with the Warning Coordination Meteorologist (WCM) at your local NWS Weather Forecast Office (WFO) on their plans for use of the service as well as other helpful information, such as best practices.

For general information about NWEM dissemination by the NWS, please contact NWEM.support@noaa.gov

For general FEMA IPAWS support, please contact IPAWS@fema.dhs.gov

For FEMA IPAWS 24/7 operational support, please call 1-84-IPAWSLAB (1-844-729-7522)