WeatherLink already has a built-in alarm feature — and it works well for email. But if you’re in the Philippines or any region where WeatherLink’s SMS courier isn’t supported, mobile alerts simply don’t arrive. WL Alert was built to fix exactly that. Here’s how the platform works and what happens from the moment a threshold is crossed to the moment your phone receives a message.

First — What WeatherLink Already Does

To be clear and straightforward: WeatherLink.com has its own alarm system. You can define threshold-based rules and receive email notifications when your weather conditions are met. For many users in supported regions, this works perfectly well.

The limitation appears when you try to enable SMS. WeatherLink’s SMS delivery is tied to a limited list of approved network couriers. If your mobile network — or your country — isn’t on that list, the SMS option either doesn’t appear or fails to deliver entirely. For the vast majority of users in the Philippines, this is the exact wall they hit.

That’s the gap WL Alert was built to close.

What WL Alert Adds

WL Alert connects to your WeatherLink account through the official API and operates as an independent alert layer on top of it. Your WeatherLink dashboard, your station setup, and your existing data are completely unchanged. WL Alert simply adds what’s missing — reliable SMS delivery and a flexible rule engine that works regardless of your network or location.

Think of it this way: WeatherLink watches your station and stores your data. WL Alert makes sure the right people are notified — on any network, in any location, at any hour.

What Triggers a WL Alert?

You define the conditions. WL Alert monitors any metric your Davis weather station reports through the WeatherLink API and fires an alert the moment a threshold you’ve set is crossed. Common trigger conditions include:

• Heat Index above a dangerous level — e.g., above 42°C
• Temperature dropping below a minimum threshold — e.g., cold or frost risk below 10°C
• Wind speed exceeding a safe operational limit
• UV Index reaching extreme or very high levels
• Humidity crossing a crop stress or comfort threshold
• Rainfall rate exceeding a flood or drainage limit
• Barometric pressure dropping sharply — indicating incoming storm conditions
• Dew point crossing a condensation or comfort threshold

For each rule you create, you choose the metric, the operator — greater than or less than — and the specific trigger value. WL Alert evaluates your station data at every polling interval and fires the alert the moment that condition is met.

How Alerts Are Delivered

Email Alerts

Available on all plans including Free. When a threshold is crossed, WL Alert sends a formatted notification to every email address listed on that rule. You can add multiple recipients — operations managers, farm supervisors, safety officers, family members — separated by commas. Each email sent counts as one delivery credit from your monthly allowance.

Email alerts are reliable, detailed, and work on any device without any special configuration on the recipient’s end.

SMS Alerts — The Core Reason WL Alert Exists

This is the problem WL Alert was specifically built to solve. WeatherLink’s SMS delivery depends on approved network courier partnerships — partnerships that exclude most Philippine mobile networks. WL Alert bypasses this entirely by using its own independent SMS gateway.

The result: SMS alerts that are delivered directly to Globe, Smart, DITO, and other Philippine networks — with no courier restrictions, no geographic limitations, and no dependency on WeatherLink’s approved partner list.

SMS is available on Pro and Business plans. When a rule fires, your listed mobile numbers receive a text message instantly. No app required on the recipient’s end. No internet connection needed to receive it. Just a direct SMS that says something important is happening right now.

What an Alert Message Looks Like

Every alert WL Alert delivers contains the specific details your team needs to understand what happened and act immediately. Here is an example of a standard alert message:

Alert from Company Cacao
Heat Index is now 43°C, which is above the threshold of 42°C.
Rule: Heat Index above 42°C
Triggered: May 14, 2025 at 12:54 PM

The same message is delivered via both email and SMS when both channels are enabled on a rule. It is intentionally concise — clear enough to act on immediately, short enough to read as a text message without scrolling.

Customize Your Alert Messages

WL Alert includes a built-in message builder that lets you write your own alert template. Start from a predefined standard template or build your own from scratch. Use dynamic placeholders that are automatically replaced with live data when the alert fires:

• {{station_name}} — the name of your WeatherLink station
• {{metric_label}} — the weather metric that triggered the alert
• {{current_value}} — the live reading at the exact moment of trigger
• {{threshold_value}} — the limit you defined for that rule
• {{operator_label}} — the condition that was met (greater than / less than)
• {{rule_name}} — the name you assigned to the alert rule
• {{triggered_time}} — the exact date and time the alert fired

Because the same message template is used for both email and SMS delivery, WL Alert recommends keeping your messages concise and direct. The message builder includes a live preview so you can see exactly how your alert will appear before saving the rule.

Multiple Recipients Per Rule

A single weather event often needs to reach more than one person. WL Alert supports multiple recipients per alert rule — add as many email addresses and phone numbers as your plan allows, and every person on the list receives the notification simultaneously when the rule fires.

Recipient fields accept comma-separated entries for email and individual lines for phone numbers. Each delivery to each recipient counts as one credit from your monthly allowance.

Polling Frequency — How Fast WL Alert Responds

WL Alert checks your WeatherLink station data at regular intervals throughout the day and night. How quickly it detects a threshold breach depends on your plan’s polling frequency:

• Free plan — every 15 minutes
• Starter plan — every 5 minutes
• Pro plan — every 2 minutes
• Business plan — every 1 minute

For operations where conditions can change rapidly — extreme heat events, sudden wind gusts, or fast-rising rainfall — the Pro or Business plan’s faster polling ensures your team is notified as quickly as possible after a threshold is crossed.

Cooldown Controls — Avoiding Alert Fatigue

When conditions remain above a threshold for an extended period, repeated alerts can quickly become noise — leading recipients to ignore them entirely. WL Alert includes cooldown controls that regulate how frequently the same rule can fire for the same sustained condition.

This means your team receives a clear, timely alert when something changes — not a flood of repeated messages every few minutes for as long as conditions remain elevated. The right number of alerts at the right time makes every notification count.

Alert Analytics — Know What Your System Is Doing

WL Alert provides an analytics dashboard that gives you a clear overview of your monitoring system’s activity. At a glance you can see:

• Total alert events triggered in the current period
• Total notifications successfully sent
• Cooldown stops — alerts suppressed by cooldown controls
• Credits blocked — deliveries stopped due to exhausted credit limits
• Your top performing rules by trigger frequency over the last 30 days

Analytics help you understand whether your rules are calibrated correctly, whether credits are being consumed faster than expected, and whether any station is reporting unusual behavior. It gives you full visibility into what your alert system is doing — and confidence that it’s working the way it should.

Alert History — A Complete Record of Every Event

Every alert that has ever fired on your account is permanently logged in your alert history. Each record contains:

• The rule name that triggered the alert
• The station the reading came from
• The metric value at the time of trigger
• The threshold that was crossed
• The delivery channel used — email, SMS, or both
• The exact timestamp of the event

Your alert history is your complete weather event audit trail. Whether you’re reviewing a near-miss situation, documenting an incident for reporting purposes, verifying that your system responded correctly during a storm, or simply checking that last night’s alert actually went out — the history panel has the full record.

Delivery Credits — How They Work

Each notification WL Alert sends — whether email or SMS — consumes one delivery credit from your monthly plan allowance. If an alert rule fires and notifies four recipients, that uses four credits. Credits reset automatically on your billing anniversary each month.

If your monthly credits run low before the reset date, add-on credit packs are available for purchase at any time — no plan change required. Starter, Growth, and Operations Reserve packs are available on the pricing page to keep your alerts running without interruption.

Ready to Receive SMS Alerts From Your Davis Station?

If you’ve tried WeatherLink’s built-in alarms and hit the SMS wall — WL Alert is your solution. Setup takes under 5 minutes. The free plan gets you started immediately with no credit card required. When you’re ready for SMS delivery and faster polling, upgrading takes seconds.