Scenarios

• The weather watch and the weather warning can apply to such hazardous weather scenarios as snow, ice, flooding, wind, and extremes of temperature.
  
  

Watches

• A watch is appropriate when the weather has the potential to occur but there is no certainty of where and when it will arrive. A watch simply alerts citizens to the possibility of bad weather.
  
  

Warnings

• A weather warning means that weather with potential to disrupt and cause damage is very likely to occur or is in the process of occurring. A weather warning should motivate people into planning a course of action to seek safety if they find themselves in the path of foul weather.
  
  

Only a Warning

• Certain types of extreme weather do not qualify for watches but do for warnings, with the weather having to be in the offing for the Weather Service to issue the warning. Warnings about wind chill, high winds, freezes, and excessive heat fall into this category.
  
  

Size Factor

• The region where weather can strike is typically wide in a watch and then narrowed down to specific areas during a warning. For instance, a tornado watch will cover large sections of a state, and then as tornadoes actually break out, the warnings will alert particular counties.