ALERT, the ALabama Emergency Response Team, is an organization of amateur radio operators from throughout Birmingham and central Alabama. ALERT is a non-profit corporation founded in Jefferson County, Alabama, on June 20, 1996.
ALERT is dedicated to providing Skywarn and other emergency communications messaging services using amateur radio. ALERT works closely with the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Birmingham, the Birmingham-Jefferson Co. Emergency Management Agency and with other public safety and amateur radio emergency communications groups involved in Skywarn services elsewhere across Alabama.
ALERT's Mission Statement, adopted by its Board of Directors, states: To promote and enhance Amateur Radio Emergency Communications through training and the use of operating standards during severe weather and other emergencies.
ALERT members activate whenever severe weather threatens counties across the northern two thirds of Alabama and four counties in west Georgia. Coverage area includes all counties in the Coverage Warning Area as designated by the NWS. Activations are designed to provide the NWS with the fastest possible, real-time relay of spotter and other severe weather information so that forecasters can issue severe weather warnings as appropriate to warn the public. ALERT members who have met training qualification requirements are dispatched to the NWS to operate as Skywarn Net Relays, helping to pass reports from established Skywarn Nets operated by other amateur radio emergency communications groups elsewhere in Alabama. ALERT provides emergency communications services to the NWS seven days a week, 365 days a year through use of a 24 hour on-call system.