Question about the /weather/severe/alerts API

Question

When I call the /weather/severe/alerts API to query the alerts for a region, why does the API return multiple records for the same type of alert? I think it should just return in the same array of 'alertAreas'.

        {
            "countryCode": "AU",
            "alertId": 49237,
            "description": {
                "localized": "Severe Weather Warning",
                "english": "Severe Weather Warning"
            },
            "category": "SEVERE",
            "priority": 3,
            "class": "Warning",
            "level": "STD",
            "source": "Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology",
            "sourceId": 61,
            "alertAreas": [
                {
                    "name": "Wimmera",
                    "summary": "Severe Weather Warning in effect until Friday, 5:00 AM AEDT.  Source: Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology",
                    "startTime": "2024-12-26T21:46:00+11:00",
                    "endTime": "2024-12-27T05:00:00+11:00",
                    "latestStatus": {
                        "localized": "Extend",
                        "english": "Extend"
                    },
                    "alertDetails": "...",
                    "alertDetailsLanguageCode": "en-GB"
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            "countryCode": "AU",
            "alertId": 49239,
            "description": {
                "localized": "Severe Weather Warning",
                "english": "Severe Weather Warning"
            },
            "category": "SEVERE",
            "priority": 3,
            "class": "Warning",
            "level": "STD",
            "source": "Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology",
            "sourceId": 61,
            "alertAreas": [
                {
                    "name": "North Central",
                    "summary": "Severe Weather Warning in effect until Friday, 5:00 AM AEDT.  Source: Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology",
                    "startTime": "2024-12-26T21:46:00+11:00",
                    "endTime": "2024-12-27T05:00:00+11:00",
                    "latestStatus": {
                        "localized": "Extend",
                        "english": "Extend"
                    },
                    "alertDetails": "...",
                    "alertDetailsLanguageCode": "en-GB"
                }
            ]
        }

Answer 1

Hello!

There is a possibility of multiple alerts within the same area which may be of the same type but could differ in their attributes like priority, classification over time as the forecast changes.

For example, following alerts will be reported as unique alerts in the same API call

Fog warning from Jan1, 2025 to Jan2, 2025 and priority of 1

Fog warning from Jan2, 2025 to Jan3, 2025 and priority degraded to 3