Who this article is for: Stormwater users with the Administrator access level.
Overview
A forecast notification watches the NOAA/National Weather Service forecast for a set of your sites. When a site's forecast crosses the rain thresholds you set, the notification emails everyone on its recipient list. Recipients do not need a Stormwater login.
Each notification has its own name, thresholds, look-ahead window, sites, and recipients. You can create as many as you need. Each one keeps a send history: when it fired, which sites qualified, and who was emailed.
Forecast notifications are separate from your personal forecast email. The settings on the My Forecast Email tab (your own email schedule, alert thresholds, and sites) work the same way they did before. Those alert thresholds still only highlight cells on the Weather Summary grid and do not send email.
Before You Begin
The Forecast Notifications tab appears only for users with the Administrator access level. Other users see the settings page without tabs.
If your account is read-only or restricted, you can view your notifications but cannot create, change, enable, or delete them.
Each notification is private to the administrator who created it. Other administrators in your organization do not see it in their list.
Opening Forecast Notifications
In the left menu, click Weather Summary.
Click Settings at the top of the page. The NOAA Forecast Summary Settings page opens.
Click the Forecast Notifications tab.
The list shows your notifications with their Name, Status, Trigger, Look-ahead, and Recipients. Status reads Enabled or Off. Trigger summarizes the thresholds, for example PoP ≥ 50% AND QPF ≥ 0.5" / 24h. PoP is the chance of precipitation and QPF is the expected rainfall amount. Recipients counts the active recipients.
Creating a Forecast Notification
Creating a notification is a three-step wizard: General Settings, Sites, and Recipients.
Entering the General Settings
On the Forecast Notifications tab, click New Notification.
Enter a Name. The name appears in your list and in the emails the notification sends.
Under Rain trigger, fill in both thresholds:
Chance of precipitation (%) at or above — a number from 0 to 100.
Expected rainfall (inches) at or above — the rainfall amount.
In Both must be met, or either?, choose Both (AND) or Either (OR). With Both (AND), a site qualifies only when both values are met. With Either (OR), one value on its own is enough.
In Rainfall accumulation window (hours), choose 6, 12, 24, or 48 hours. This is the length of the period the expected rainfall is added up over.
In How far ahead to look, choose from 24 hours (1 day) up to 120 hours (5 days).
Optionally, fill in the Email identity fields:
From name (optional) — left blank, the email shows your organization's name.
Reply-to email (optional — defaults to your address) — left blank, replies go to your email address.
Click NEXT.
Emails are always sent from info@cloudcompli.com. Clicking NEXT saves the notification, switched off, so leaving the wizard partway through leaves a draft in your list with the Off status.
Choosing Sites
Choose which sites the notification covers:
Check All my sites to cover every site you can see. This is worked out each time the notification is checked, so sites you gain access to later are included.
Or, under Available Sites, search with Search For Site and click + next to each site you want. Added sites move to Sites in Notification, and the source row shows Added.
Click NEXT.
You need at least one site, or All my sites. Otherwise the message Choose at least one site, or tick All my sites. appears.
Adding Recipients
Add recipients in either of two ways:
Add from your contacts — search by name or email, then click + next to a contact. Only contacts with an email address are listed.
Add manually — enter an Email and an optional Name, then click Add Recipient. This works for anyone, including people without a Stormwater login.
To have the notification start working right away, check Enable this notification now — start evaluating and emailing on the next qualifying forecast. Leave it unchecked to save the notification as Off.
Click FINISH. The notification's detail page opens.
⚠️ An enabled notification emails real people, including people outside your organization, as soon as a forecast qualifies.
How a Notification Decides to Send
Enabled notifications are checked against the latest NOAA/National Weather Service forecast once an hour.
Each forecast day inside the look-ahead window is checked separately for each site. A site qualifies for a day when the day's highest chance of precipitation and its heaviest rainfall total over the accumulation window meet your thresholds, using your Both (AND) or Either (OR) choice. A value exactly at the threshold counts.
When sites qualify, each recipient gets one email listing every qualifying site and forecast day.
A site and day that has already been emailed is not emailed again on the next check. It is sent again only if the forecast gets noticeably worse: expected rainfall rises to at least 1.5 times what was last sent, or the chance of precipitation rises by 25 percentage points or more.
A notification with no active recipients does not send.
A site with no NOAA forecast behind it is skipped.
What Recipients Receive
The email's subject reads Forecast alert: followed by the number of qualifying sites and the notification's name. The email contains:
A table of each qualifying Site with its Forecast day, Chance of precip, and Expected rain.
A View the forecast summary button that opens the Weather Summary page.
The forecast source (NOAA/National Weather Service) and the time the forecast was issued.
An unsubscribe here link.
Clicking unsubscribe here opens a page asking the recipient to confirm. After they click Unsubscribe, the page reads You're unsubscribed. The recipient then appears on the notification's Unsubscribed tab. Their address is also added to your organization's email suppression list, so no forecast notification emails it again.
Managing a Notification
Click a notification's name, or Actions > View, to open its detail page. The top of the page shows RECIPIENTS, UNSUBSCRIBED, TIMES FIRED, and LAST FIRED, then email statistics: DELIVERY RATE, OPEN RATE (APPROX.), CLICK RATE, and BOUNCES. Open and click figures read Not tracked when the sends were not tracked.
The Notification Details card shows the status badge (Enabled or Off), the Trigger, Look-ahead, Sites, From, and Reply-To. Below it are six tabs:
Tab | What it shows |
Thresholds | The Enabled checkbox, the notification name, both thresholds, the AND/OR choice, the accumulation window, the look-ahead window, and the email identity fields. Click Save to keep changes. |
Sites | All my sites, or the Sites in Notification and Available Sites lists. Click Save Sites to keep changes. |
Recipients | Each active recipient's Name, Email, Source, Sites, and Added date, with Export CSV and Add Recipient. |
Unsubscribed | People who left on their own — through the email link, a bounce, or a spam complaint — with when they left (Left) and How. Includes Export CSV. |
Bounced | Emails from this notification that bounced or were reported as spam, one row per send, with Suppressed now showing whether future sends skip that address. Includes Export CSV. |
History | Every time the notification fired: Fired, Status, Sites, Sent / Skipped, Delivered, Opened, Clicked, and Bounced. Click a Fired time to list each recipient on that send. |
Turning a Notification On or Off
On the Thresholds tab, check or uncheck Enabled. The change saves on its own and the status badge updates.
Or, on the Forecast Notifications tab, click Actions > Enable or Disable.
A notification can be enabled only when both thresholds are filled in and it covers at least one site or All my sites.
Adding and Removing Recipients
On the Recipients tab, click Add Recipient.
Enter an Email and an optional Name, then click Add.
To remove someone, click the trash icon on their row and confirm. A removed recipient does not appear on the Unsubscribed tab and can be added back at any time.
Deleting a Notification
Click Delete on the Notification Details card, or Actions > Delete in the list.
Confirm in the browser dialog.
The notification stops immediately and nothing further is sent. Its send history is kept.
FAQ
Q: The forecast looked bad but nobody got an email. Why?
A: Check that the notification's status is Enabled and that it has at least one active recipient. Then check the thresholds: with Both (AND), both values must be met on the same forecast day. The event may also be outside the look-ahead window, or it may already have been emailed for that site and day. An address marked (suppressed) on the Recipients tab is skipped on every send.
Q: A multi-day storm only produced one email. Is that right?
A: Yes. Each site and forecast day is emailed once. A later email for the same day goes out only if the forecast gets noticeably worse.
Q: One of my sites never shows up in the emails.
A: The site may have no NOAA forecast behind it. A site with no forecast is skipped when the notification is checked.
Q: Why does a recipient show (suppressed) next to their email?
A: The address is on your organization's email suppression list, usually because an earlier email to it bounced or was reported as spam, or because the person unsubscribed. Sends skip a suppressed address, and the History tab counts it under Sent / Skipped.
Q: Someone unsubscribed by accident. Can I add them back?
A: Not in a way that restarts their emails. Unsubscribing stops all forecast notifications to that email address, not just the one they left. You can add them back on the Recipients tab after confirming you have their consent, but their address keeps showing (suppressed) and sends keep skipping it. The unsubscribe can't be reversed from Stormwater.
Q: Can another administrator take over my notification?
A: No. A notification belongs to the administrator who created it, other administrators do not see it, and it cannot be reassigned. If the owner's user account is deactivated, the notification stops sending.
Q: Can I enable a notification with only one threshold?
A: No. Both Chance of precipitation (%) at or above and Expected rainfall (inches) at or above are required. Leaving one blank shows A chance of precipitation is required. or An expected rainfall amount is required.
Q: Does this replace my personal forecast email?
A: No. The My Forecast Email tab keeps its own schedule, thresholds, and sites, and it only ever emails you.