# Extreme wind warning

An extreme wind warning (SAME code EWW) is an alert issued by the National Weather Service for areas on land that will experience sustained surface winds 100 knots (115 mph, 185 km/h, 51 m/s) or greater within one hour. As of 2024, it has only been used for the eyewalls of major hurricanes when they pass near-shore, and during and shortly after landfall, but it is also intended as a general "short-fused" warning for any immediate occurrence of such winds. Extreme wind warnings are issued for as precise of an area as possible, in like manner as a tornado warning, to provide guidance to the general public at the county and sub-county level when such winds pose a significant threat of casualties. They cannot be issued earlier than two hours before the onset of extreme winds.

## History

The extreme wind warning was created out of a need for an unambiguous bulletin of equivalent priority as a tornado warning for the extreme winds of a major hurricane's eyewall, particularly after Hurricane Charley and Hurricane Jeanne struck Florida in 2004. Prior to the advent of the warning, similar bulletins were often embedded in, and issued as tornado warnings to give them higher visibility and urgency. During the passage of Charley across the state, the National Weather Service weather forecast office in Melbourne, Florida, issued such an ad hoc "tornado" warning after the office's forecasters determined that the active hurricane warnings did not sufficiently convey the severity and imminence of Charley's eyewall over central Florida. The forecast office also issued similar "tornado" warnings as the strong winds of Jeanne moved ashore from the east later that year. The nonconventional usage of tornado warnings for extreme hurricane winds was praised by emergency management, citing it as an ingenious method of protecting lives. In December 2004, the Melbourne forecast office briefed attendees at an annual NOAA Hurricane Conference on their use of the special tornado warning, advocating and eventually reaching consensus for a specialized official National Weather Service product for extreme winds.
The new warning was standardized in its experimental stages in 2005, so weather forecast offices continued to use special tornado warnings to broadcast the threat of severe wind during the landfalls of Hurricanes Dennis, Katrina, Rita, and Wilma. The wind and timing thresholds that eventually became the criteria of extreme wind warnings were also used as thresholds for these special tornado warnings in 2005. The warnings, termed Extreme Tropical Cyclone Destructive Wind Warnings, advised residents to take sturdy shelter in the interior portions of well-built structures. During Katrina, the weather services serving the Jackson and New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana forecast areas issued 19 warnings. Public response to these warnings was mixed, praising their specificity but finding their placement within tornado warnings confusing, particularly when they were issued near traditional tornado warnings. The advice of taking interior low-level shelter given in the wind warnings also contradicted the advice given in Hurricane Local Statements of taking interior shelter in elevated floors for storm surge-prone areas. NOAA/NWS recommendations called for the development of an extreme wind warning independent from tornado warnings and increased outreach for the warning.
The following year, extreme wind warnings continued to be packaged within special tornado warnings for public evaluation, and the warning became its own official independent product by the 2007 Atlantic hurricane season, though no hurricane would trigger an extreme wind warning for nearly another decade. Despite the newly independent warning system, until the 2015 Atlantic hurricane season, the Emergency Alert System continued to broadcast EWWs as tornado warnings (using the TOR event code). On the morning of October 7, 2016, the nearby passage of Category 3 Hurricane Matthew just off Cape Canaveral prompted the first issuance of an extreme wind warning. In 2023, the National Weather Service in Guam was granted the ability to issue EWWs, and on May 24, 2023, the first extreme wind warning was issued in the Western Pacific, as a result of Typhoon Mawar.

## Issuances

Extreme wind warnings issued by the National Weather Service :
| Date | Event | State / Territory | Location | Weather Forecast Office |
| October 7, 2016 | Hurricane Matthew | Florida | Brevard | MLB (Melbourne, FL) |
| August 25, 2017 | Hurricane Harvey | Texas | Aransas, Calhoun, Nueces, San Patricio, Refugio | CRP (Corpus Christi, TX) |
| September 6, 2017 | Hurricane Irma | U.S. Virgin Islands | Saint John, Saint Thomas | SJU (San Juan, PR) |
| September 10, 2017 | Hurricane Irma | Florida | Monroe (two separate warnings) | KEY (Key West, FL) |
| September 10, 2017 | Hurricane Irma | Florida | Collier (two separate warnings) | MFL (Miami, FL) |
| September 10, 2017 | Hurricane Irma | Florida | Lee | TBW (Tampa Bay Area–Ruskin, FL) |
| September 20, 2017 | Hurricane Maria | Puerto Rico | Aguas Buenas, Bayamón, Canóvanas, Carolina, Cidra, Guaynabo, Río Grande, San Juan, Trujillo Alto | SJU (San Juan, PR) |
| October 10, 2018 | Hurricane Michael | Alabama, Florida, Georgia | Florida: Bay, Franklin, Gulf | TLH (Tallahassee, FL) |
| October 10, 2018 | Hurricane Michael | Alabama, Florida, Georgia | Florida: Jackson, Gulf, Bay, Calhoun, Liberty, Washington | TLH (Tallahassee, FL) |
| October 10, 2018 | Hurricane Michael | Alabama, Florida, Georgia | Florida: Jackson, Gadsden, Holmes, Washington Georgia: Decatur, Seminole | TLH (Tallahassee, FL) |
| October 10, 2018 | Hurricane Michael | Alabama, Florida, Georgia | Alabama: Houston Florida: Jackson Georgia: Decatur, Miller, Early, Seminole | TLH (Tallahassee, FL) |
| August 26, 2020 | Hurricane Laura | Louisiana, Texas | Louisiana: Cameron, Jefferson Davis, Beauregard, Acadia, Calcasieu, Vermilion, Allen Texas: Jefferson, Newton, Hardin, Orange, Jasper | LCH (Lake Charles, LA) issued by BRO (Brownsville, TX)† |
| August 27, 2020 | Hurricane Laura | Louisiana, Texas | Louisiana: Cameron, Jefferson Davis, Beauregard, Calcasieu, Allen Texas: Newton, Orange | LCH (Lake Charles, LA) issued by BRO (Brownsville, TX)† |
| August 27, 2020 | Hurricane Laura | Louisiana, Texas | Louisiana: Cameron, Jefferson Davis, Beauregard, Calcasieu, Vernon, Allen Texas: Newton, Orange, Jasper | LCH (Lake Charles, LA) issued by BRO (Brownsville, TX)† |
| August 29, 2021 | Hurricane Ida | Louisiana | Jefferson, Lafourche, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, St. Charles, Terrebonne, St. John the Baptist | LIX (New Orleans, LA) |
| September 28, 2022 | Hurricane Ian | Florida | Lee, Charlotte, Sarasota, DeSoto, Manatee, Hardee, Highlands, Polk | TBW (Tampa Bay Area–Ruskin, FL) |
| May 24, 2023 | Typhoon Mawar | Guam | Dededo, Yigo, Tamuning | GUM (Tiyan, GU) |
| August 30, 2023 | Hurricane Idalia | Florida | Dixie, Lafayette, Madison, Taylor | TAE (Tallahassee, FL) |
| August 30, 2023 | Hurricane Idalia | Florida | Suwannee | JAX (Jacksonville, FL) |
| September 26, 2024 | Hurricane Helene | Florida, Georgia | Florida: Dixie, Jefferson, Lafayette, Leon, Madison, Taylor, Wakulla Georgia: Brooks, Lowndes, Thomas | TAE (Tallahassee, FL) |
| September 27, 2024 | Hurricane Helene | Georgia, Florida | Georgia: Echols Florida: Suwannee, Hamilton | JAX (Jacksonville, FL) issued by LIX (New Orleans, LA)† |
| October 9, 2024 | Hurricane Milton | Florida | Hillsborough, Manatee, Pinellas | TBW (Tampa Bay Area–Ruskin, FL) |
| † – Issued by an alternative WFO under continuance of operations; for example, a WFO under shelter or closed due to impending hurricane impacts. |||||

## Example

The following is an example of an Extreme Wind Warning from the National Weather Service office in Ruskin, Florida (TBW) during the landfall of Hurricane Milton.