EWN Support and Frequently Asked Questions

The Early Warning Network is a multi-channel geographic based distribution system for warnings, incidents, forecasts, threat maps and other alert products.

Where are the sponsored areas?

For further information on sponsored services including mobile app push notifications and/or free SMS please click on the council of your choice:

If you receive an email indicating your SMS Alerts are about to expire, but you live in a Sponsored Area please email support mentioning your street address so we can fix the problem.

What is EWN Premium?

EWN Premium is a subscription service which covers the cost of the SMS component of alerts for people who live outside of sponsored areas, or who are not employees of EWN clients. Members will need to subscribe after a 30 day trial in order to keep receiving SMS. Email alerts, and iPhone or Android App push notifications are also available and will continue to be issued even if your SMS alerts have expired.

If you are an existing EWN member and wish to upgrade to, or renew your EWN Premium which is $9.95 per year, please login here then select EWN Premium from the menu.

What type of alerts can I expect to receive?

Severe thunderstorm warnings, severe weather warnings, flood watches, tropical cyclone watches and warnings, tsunami warnings and fire weather warnings sourced from the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM). Bushfire watch & act and emergency warnings from state-base bushfire responders.

What are Threat Levels?

Please read the Early Warning Network Alerts page for full details including information about Threat Levels applied to alerts.

Are updated warnings issued?

Once you receive an alert from EWN you should monitor the situation closely. EWN may issue updates for deteriorating or escalating situations, or multi-day events. For example, tropical cyclones or east coast lows undergoing intensification. EWN does not issue warning cancellations except where an arrangement exists with a client.

Is an SMS issued for every alert?

Typically yes, though an email-only severe thunderstorm forecast may be issued for days when widespread severe thunderstorm activity is expected but is yet to develop. Email, App Push Notifications and SMS Alerts will be sent if warnings are issued by the BoM.

Can I receive alerts for a larger geographic area, a state or the whole country?

Yes, please refer to our commercial services pages and in particular EWN Regional Alerts.

Can I receive EWN alerts on Facebook or Twitter?

Yes, please visit our Facebook and Twitter pages for more information.

Can I see all the EWN alerts on your website?

Yes, please visit the Alerts Page or RSS Feed.

Should I receive any alerts for areas away from where I live?

No. If you have received any alerts that are for another part of the country there is a problem with the geocoding (assigning of a latitude and longitude) of your address.

If you use (or in the past tried) our iPhone or Android apps, the wrong alerts may be related to a location you visited that has not updated. Please email support so we can fix the problem, or advise a solution.

When are landline alerts issued?

Landline alerts are only issued where EWN has an arrangement with a local council to do so, otherwise you should only expect to receive Email, App Push Notifications and SMS alerts.

Did you receive a late Email Alert?

Yahoo and Microsoft branded (Hotmail, Outlook) free email services continue to delay a lot of our email alerts. Unfortunately it is beyond EWN control to address this delay. Members with Yahoo or Hotmail email addresses should rely on our SMS alerts or push notifications (via the apps), or update your email address to another such as Gmail or your ISP.

Why have I received no alerts, or why do I no longer receive any alerts when I used to?

Possible reasons for this include:

Please email support including your mobile phone number and address and we'll investigate.

How do I add another mobile phone number to my registration?

Use another email account to register the other number, or open a free online email account with hotmail/gmail etc and use that. Alternatively email support and we'll add the details for you. This option is not available in all areas.

Why are email alerts from EWN appearing as code instead of properly formatted messages?

Some mobile devices and email clients have problems rendering HTML based email messages. If this is affecting you email support and we can set your registration to receive "plain text" alerts instead.

Did you receive your SMS alert late or not at all?

Our system sends SMS and emails at the same time though it may take several minutes for alerts to propogate to everyone in metropolitan areas. Occasionally network congestion by the SMS providers prevents the immediate delivery of SMS alerts. This may affect every customer of a particular mobile phone provider at that time. If you do receive a late SMS and want to find out more please email support and also mention the mobile carrier you are with. Please also refer to the item about EWN Premium.

How do I switch off SMS alerts?

If you are going overseas or just don't need SMS alerts any more you can login then use the Join Groups screen to untick the SMS method for all the groups listed. You may reinstate SMS alerts at a later time by logging back in. Alternatively email support and we can do this for you.

How do I change my details?

Login to EWN and update your details, or advise email, address or phone number changes to support@ewn.com.au. Be sure to include your previous email and/or mobile phone number so records can be matched.

Infrastructure Alerts

WaterNSW and Seqwater provide free flood and water release notifications for their dams using the EWN system.

What is Emergency Alert?

Emergency Alert is a federal government funded system that is used to send out SMS and Landline alerts in extreme situations such as bushfire emergencies and major flooding. These messages often contain evacuation or specific advice for communities. EWN does not issue these alerts.

How do I unsubscribe?

Please follow the instructions on this page.

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