With broadband Internet, mobile devices and web-based information being adopted faster than ever before, the National Weather Service (NWS) is faced with a challenge to optimize its dissemination systems for these rapidly evolving technologies. Rising to this challenge will assure the NWS can provide life-saving information to its partners and users in a more efficient manner. One project working towards this goal is iNWS.

iNWS allows NWS partners to configure custom geographic areas of interest. Using the geographic information in NWS warnings, including storm-based polygon data when available, iNWS sends text message and email alerts to users when the NWS issues warnings impacting their areas of interest. Each alert contains a summary of the hazard and a link taking the user to a web page containing more information and graphics relevant to the hazard. This simple message-based approach provides clear and concise information to users and allows for easy integration into other systems and social networking services.

User feedback and rapidly increasing usage and shows that iNWS provides an effective service that meets user expectations and consistent with popular consumer tools and technologies. iNWS will serve as a solid foundation upon which the NWS can continue to build products and services compatible with today's technology and flexible enough to adapt to technologies of the future.