Disclaimer

Not an official source

Stormbell is published by Boilerplate LLC, a private company. It is not a government service. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or operated by the National Weather Service, NOAA or any government agency.

Not a replacement for official warnings

Stormbell is an extra layer beside your phone’s own emergency alerts, not a substitute for them. Keep your phone’s built-in emergency alerts turned on. Follow warnings and instructions from the National Weather Service, NOAA Weather Radio and your local authorities. In a warning, act on the official instruction; do not wait for this app.

What can go wrong, and why

• An alert can arrive late, or not at all. The app checks for alerts in the background, and your phone decides when that happens:
  • On iPhone, the system schedules the checks, and they can be far apart. They stop if you swipe the app away, and while Low Power Mode is on.
  • On Android, checks are no more often than every 15 minutes, and battery-saving settings can delay them further.
  • Notification settings, Do Not Disturb, Focus modes and silent mode can all keep an alert from being heard. On iPhone the silent switch mutes every Stormbell sound, Loud warnings included.
  • On Android, a warning that comes within about a minute of another Stormbell notification may play quieter, or not at all, because of Android’s notification cooldown. Loud warnings are exempt.
• The app’s own settings decide what notifies. Out of the box it notifies only for Severe and Extreme alerts. A rating the weather service gives as “Unknown”, and a certainty of “Unlikely”, count as the lowest level, so an alert whose severity is “Unknown” does not notify out of the box. Alerts the weather service marks as already past never notify. With “Only notify for new or upgraded alerts” on, as it is out of the box, an update to an alert the app has told you about stays quiet unless the alert gets worse. A place whose sounds are set to Off shows its alerts silently. With “Alerts for where you are” off, nothing is looked up for where your phone is. With many saved places, one background check may not reach them all. A warning that begins and ends between two checks, and whose push does not arrive, is never seen.
• The weather service’s information can be delayed, incomplete or changed. The National Weather Service publishes, updates and cancels alerts, including some it relays for other agencies. The app shows what the service had when it last checked, and the service can be slow or unavailable.
• Your location can be off. A phone’s location can be wrong by tens of meters or more, especially indoors, and an approximate location can be off by miles. A saved place set from a ZIP code is a central point of the Census Bureau’s area for that ZIP code, not your address. The ZIP shown for where you are is the Census area your phone’s position is inside, worked out from your phone’s exact position, which stays on the phone. An alert shown for a place is for the point the app was given, which may not be where you are.
• The map is approximate. County and zone outlines, towns and roads are simplified so they fit on a phone. Alerts that cover whole zones are drawn with the zone’s outline, which does not show exactly where the danger is.
• The app’s own words are its own. The app shows the weather service’s text without rewriting it. The labels it adds, such as “unclear”, and the notifications it raises are the app’s, not the weather service’s.

No liability for decisions

All information in the app is provided “as is”, with no guarantee of completeness, accuracy or timeliness, and without warranty of any kind, express or implied. Boilerplate LLC is not responsible for errors, omissions, or alerts that are late or never delivered. To the fullest extent the law allows, neither Boilerplate LLC nor its partners, employees or agents will be liable to you or anyone else for any decision made, or action taken or not taken, in reliance on the app. That includes consequential, special or similar damages, even if we were told they were possible.

Sources and licenses

• Weather alerts: from the US National Weather Service, shown as published. Public domain. The app is not endorsed by NOAA or the National Weather Service.
• County and zone outlines: National Weather Service GIS data (counties and public forecast, fire, marine and offshore zones, 16 April 2026 edition), simplified for this app. Public domain. They are not official National Weather Service material, and are not endorsed by NOAA or the National Weather Service.
• ZIP code locations: US Census Bureau, 2025 Gazetteer Files, ZIP Code Tabulation Areas. Public domain. These approximate ZIP code areas.
• ZIP code areas: US Census Bureau, TIGER/Line 2025, ZIP Code Tabulation Areas, simplified to about 50 meters for this app. Public domain. These are Census areas, not postal delivery areas: a building or PO box ZIP has no area of its own, and near an edge the ZIP shown can be the neighboring one.
• Towns and roads: US Census Bureau, 2025 and 2010 Gazetteer Files (Places), Vintage 2024 population estimates, and TIGER/Line 2025 Primary Roads and Primary and Secondary Roads, simplified for this app. Public domain.
• Neighborhood names: US Geological Survey, Geographic Names Information System (GNIS), Populated Places. Public domain.
• Notification sounds: made for this app by Boilerplate LLC. None imitates the official emergency alert tone.

Reporting a mistake

If the app showed something wrong, or missed an alert it should have shown, tell us through the feedback form in the app’s Settings, or by email. Please include the date, the time, and roughly where you were. We keep what you send as the privacy policy describes.

Changes to this Disclaimer

We may change this Disclaimer. When we do, we change the “Last updated” date at the top of this page. The app carries that date. When the Disclaimer has changed since you last agreed to it, the app asks you to agree again the next time you open it after it has received the new date, which comes with an app update.

Contacting us

support@boiler-plate.com https://boiler-plate.com/contact

© Boilerplate LLC. All rights reserved.