why is alerts/active/count returning Canadian province abbreviations?

[JJKraw]

If this is an operational question, let me know and I'll bark up that tree.

On a current pull of the /alerts/active/count endpoint, I'm getting back data for NB, NL, NS, and QC, and for each of those multiple zones are also returned (e.g., NBZ550). I'm guessing it's not a coincidence that these are all Canadian province abbreviations.

None of these are valid as either area or zone values, so if I do a pull of alerts/active/area/NB, I get an HTTP 404 error.

This isn't causing me any problems beyond doing fetches that will return errors (which I can fix quickly) so I'm mostly curious as to why this data is being returned in the first place.

Thanks.

[JJKraw]

Update: They've disappeared now. But the question still stands. Thanks!

[akrherz]

My bet is on the testing tsunami alert

[JJKraw]

Did you happen to catch the issuing WFO?

There is no issuing WFO information. It's just an enumeration of codes and the alert counts associated with each.

Here is what I get on a fetch currently:

{
    "total": 365,
    "land": 112,
    "marine": 253,
    "regions": {
        "AL": 226,
        "AT": 16,
        "PA": 10,
        "PI": 1
    },
    "areas": {
        "AM": 3,
        "AN": 13,
        "AR": 1,
        "CA": 8,
        "CO": 1,
        "CT": 1,
        "DC": 1,
        "DE": 3,
        "FL": 21,
        "GA": 1,
        "MA": 1,
        "MD": 5,
        "MT": 15,
        "NC": 16,
        "ND": 1,
        "NE": 2,
        "NJ": 13,
        "NY": 9,
        "PH": 1,
        "PK": 226,
        "PR": 1,
        "PZ": 10,
        "RI": 1,
        "SC": 2,
        "SD": 4,
        "TX": 2,
        "VA": 6,
        "WY": 4
    },
    "zones": {
        "AMZ452": 2,
        "AMZ454": 2,
        "AMZ472": 2,
        "AMZ474": 2,
        "AMZ550": 1,
        "ANZ231": 1,
        "ANZ232": 1,
        "ANZ233": 1,
        "ANZ234": 1,
        "ANZ235": 1,
        "ANZ237": 1,
        "ANZ250": 1,
        "ANZ251": 1,
        "ANZ254": 1,
        "ANZ255": 1,
        "ANZ256": 1,
        "ANZ331": 1,
        "ANZ332": 1,
        "ANZ335": 1,
        "ANZ338": 1,
        "ANZ340": 1,
        "ANZ345": 1,
        "ANZ350": 1,
        "ANZ353": 1,
        "ANZ355": 1,
        "ANZ450": 1,
        "ANZ451": 1,
        "ANZ452": 1,
        "ANZ453": 1,
        "ANZ454": 1,
        "ANZ455": 1,
        "ANZ530": 1,
        "ANZ531": 1,
        "ANZ532": 1,
        "ANZ533": 1,
        "ANZ534": 1,
        "ANZ537": 1,
        "ANZ538": 1,
        "ANZ539": 1,
        "ANZ540": 1,
        "ANZ541": 1,
        "ANZ542": 1,
        "ANZ543": 1,
        "ANZ650": 1,
        "ANZ652": 1,
        "ANZ654": 1,
        "ARC067": 1,
        "ARC147": 1,
        "CAC007": 1,
        "CAC011": 1,
        "CAC019": 2,
        "CAC021": 1,
        "CAC029": 1,
        "CAC031": 1,
        "CAC035": 1,
        "CAC037": 2,
        "CAC039": 1,
        "CAC043": 1,
        "CAC051": 1,
        "CAC057": 1,
        "CAC059": 1,
        "CAC063": 1,
        "CAC065": 1,
        "CAC071": 1,
        "CAC073": 1,
        "CAC079": 1,
        "CAC083": 1,
        "CAC089": 1,
        "CAC101": 1,
        "CAC103": 1,
        "CAC107": 1,
        "CAC109": 1,
        "CAC111": 1,
        "CAC115": 1,
        "CAZ015": 1,
        "CAZ016": 1,
        "CAZ038": 1,
        "CAZ055": 1,
        "CAZ057": 1,
        "CAZ066": 1,
        "CAZ068": 1,
        "CAZ073": 1,
        "CAZ308": 1,
        "CAZ313": 1,
        "CAZ323": 1,
        "CAZ326": 1,
        "CAZ328": 1,
        "CAZ330": 1,
        "CAZ336": 1,
        "CAZ344": 1,
        "CAZ345": 1,
        "CAZ377": 1,
        "CAZ378": 1,
        "CAZ379": 2,
        "CAZ380": 2,
        "COC003": 1,
        "COC021": 1,
        "COC023": 1,
        "COC105": 1,
        "COC109": 1,
        "COZ069": 1,
        "COZ070": 1,
        "COZ071": 1,
        "CTC001": 1,
        "CTZ009": 1,
        "DCC001": 1,
        "DCZ001": 1,
        "DEC001": 1,
        "DEC005": 3,
        "DEZ002": 1,
        "DEZ003": 1,
        "DEZ004": 2,
        "FLC009": 2,
        "FLC011": 2,
        "FLC019": 2,
        "FLC021": 1,
        "FLC027": 1,
        "FLC031": 4,
        "FLC035": 1,
        "FLC039": 1,
        "FLC061": 2,
        "FLC065": 2,
        "FLC069": 1,
        "FLC073": 2,
        "FLC079": 1,
        "FLC085": 2,
        "FLC086": 3,
        "FLC087": 3,
        "FLC099": 2,
        "FLC101": 1,
        "FLC107": 2,
        "FLC109": 3,
        "FLC111": 2,
        "FLC127": 3,
        "FLC129": 1,
        "FLZ033": 3,
        "FLZ038": 1,
        "FLZ069": 1,
        "FLZ071": 1,
        "FLZ072": 1,
        "FLZ073": 1,
        "FLZ074": 1,
        "FLZ075": 1,
        "FLZ076": 1,
        "FLZ077": 1,
        "FLZ078": 1,
        "FLZ125": 3,
        "FLZ132": 2,
        "FLZ133": 2,
        "FLZ137": 2,
        "FLZ141": 2,
        "FLZ154": 2,
        "FLZ159": 2,
        "FLZ164": 2,
        "FLZ168": 2,
        "FLZ172": 2,
        "FLZ173": 2,
        "FLZ174": 2,
        "FLZ225": 2,
        "FLZ232": 1,
        "FLZ237": 1,
        "FLZ325": 3,
        "FLZ347": 2,
        "FLZ425": 1,
        "FLZ447": 2,
        "FLZ647": 2,
        "FLZ747": 2,
        "GAC027": 1,
        "GAC185": 1,
        "GAC275": 1,
        "MAC001": 1,
        "MAC005": 1,
        "MAC007": 1,
        "MAC009": 1,
        "MAC019": 1,
        "MAC021": 1,
        "MAC023": 1,
        "MAZ007": 1,
        "MAZ019": 1,
        "MAZ020": 1,
        "MAZ022": 1,
        "MAZ023": 1,
        "MAZ024": 1,
        "MDC003": 1,
        "MDC017": 1,
        "MDC019": 1,
        "MDC031": 1,
        "MDC039": 1,
        "MDC045": 1,
        "MDC047": 1,
        "MDZ014": 1,
        "MDZ016": 1,
        "MDZ021": 1,
        "MDZ022": 1,
        "MDZ023": 1,
        "MDZ025": 1,
        "MTC003": 1,
        "MTC005": 1,
        "MTC007": 1,
        "MTC009": 2,
        "MTC013": 3,
        "MTC015": 2,
        "MTC027": 3,
        "MTC031": 1,
        "MTC033": 1,
        "MTC037": 1,
        "MTC041": 1,
        "MTC045": 4,
        "MTC049": 1,
        "MTC055": 1,
        "MTC059": 2,
        "MTC065": 1,
        "MTC067": 3,
        "MTC069": 3,
        "MTC071": 2,
        "MTC075": 1,
        "MTC087": 1,
        "MTC095": 3,
        "MTC097": 3,
        "MTC103": 1,
        "MTC105": 1,
        "MTC107": 1,
        "MTC111": 2,
        "MTZ016": 1,
        "MTZ017": 1,
        "MTZ021": 2,
        "MTZ022": 1,
        "MTZ023": 1,
        "MTZ029": 1,
        "MTZ030": 1,
        "MTZ031": 1,
        "MTZ034": 1,
        "MTZ036": 1,
        "MTZ042": 1,
        "MTZ057": 1,
        "MTZ058": 1,
        "MTZ063": 1,
        "MTZ065": 1,
        "MTZ066": 1,
        "MTZ067": 1,
        "MTZ068": 1,
        "MTZ138": 1,
        "MTZ141": 1,
        "MTZ170": 1,
        "MTZ172": 1,
        "MTZ173": 1,
        "MTZ228": 1,
        "MTZ235": 1,
        "MTZ311": 1,
        "MTZ313": 2,
        "MTZ314": 2,
        "MTZ317": 1,
        "MTZ318": 2,
        "MTZ320": 1,
        "MTZ323": 1,
        "NCC017": 2,
        "NCC019": 2,
        "NCC031": 1,
        "NCC047": 1,
        "NCC051": 1,
        "NCC053": 1,
        "NCC055": 1,
        "NCC061": 1,
        "NCC095": 2,
        "NCC101": 1,
        "NCC103": 1,
        "NCC129": 2,
        "NCC133": 1,
        "NCC141": 2,
        "NCC157": 1,
        "NCZ102": 1,
        "NCZ106": 1,
        "NCZ107": 1,
        "NCZ108": 1,
        "NCZ110": 1,
        "NCZ196": 1,
        "NCZ203": 1,
        "NCZ204": 2,
        "NCZ205": 1,
        "NDC067": 1,
        "NEC005": 1,
        "NEC015": 1,
        "NEC017": 1,
        "NEC031": 1,
        "NEC045": 1,
        "NEC049": 1,
        "NEC069": 1,
        "NEC075": 1,
        "NEC089": 1,
        "NEC101": 1,
        "NEC103": 1,
        "NEC149": 1,
        "NEC161": 1,
        "NEC165": 1,
        "NEZ204": 1,
        "NEZ208": 1,
        "NEZ434": 1,
        "NJC001": 3,
        "NJC005": 1,
        "NJC009": 3,
        "NJC011": 1,
        "NJC013": 1,
        "NJC017": 1,
        "NJC023": 1,
        "NJC025": 3,
        "NJC029": 3,
        "NJC039": 1,
        "NJZ006": 1,
        "NJZ012": 1,
        "NJZ013": 1,
        "NJZ014": 2,
        "NJZ020": 1,
        "NJZ021": 1,
        "NJZ022": 1,
        "NJZ023": 1,
        "NJZ024": 2,
        "NJZ025": 2,
        "NJZ026": 2,
        "NJZ027": 1,
        "NJZ106": 1,
        "NJZ108": 1,
        "NYC047": 2,
        "NYC059": 2,
        "NYC081": 2,
        "NYC085": 1,
        "NYC103": 3,
        "NYC119": 1,
        "NYZ071": 1,
        "NYZ074": 1,
        "NYZ075": 2,
        "NYZ080": 2,
        "NYZ081": 1,
        "NYZ178": 2,
        "NYZ179": 2,
        "PHZ119": 1,
        "PHZ120": 1,
        "PHZ121": 1,
        "PHZ123": 1,
        "PHZ124": 1,
        "PKZ012": 6,
        "PKZ013": 6,
        "PKZ022": 4,
        "PKZ031": 3,
        "PKZ032": 2,
        "PKZ033": 2,
        "PKZ053": 1,
        "PKZ351": 3,
        "PKZ352": 3,
        "PKZ641": 1,
        "PKZ642": 1,
        "PKZ643": 1,
        "PKZ644": 3,
        "PKZ651": 3,
        "PKZ652": 3,
        "PKZ661": 1,
        "PKZ662": 3,
        "PKZ663": 3,
        "PKZ664": 3,
        "PKZ671": 3,
        "PKZ672": 3,
        "PKZ710": 5,
        "PKZ711": 5,
        "PKZ712": 5,
        "PKZ715": 5,
        "PKZ716": 5,
        "PKZ725": 2,
        "PKZ730": 5,
        "PKZ731": 5,
        "PKZ732": 5,
        "PKZ733": 5,
        "PKZ734": 5,
        "PKZ736": 5,
        "PKZ737": 5,
        "PKZ738": 5,
        "PKZ741": 2,
        "PKZ742": 2,
        "PKZ750": 4,
        "PKZ751": 4,
        "PKZ752": 2,
        "PKZ753": 4,
        "PKZ754": 2,
        "PKZ755": 2,
        "PKZ756": 2,
        "PKZ757": 2,
        "PKZ758": 2,
        "PKZ759": 2,
        "PKZ760": 3,
        "PKZ761": 3,
        "PKZ762": 2,
        "PKZ763": 3,
        "PKZ764": 2,
        "PKZ765": 3,
        "PKZ766": 2,
        "PKZ770": 2,
        "PKZ772": 2,
        "PKZ774": 2,
        "PKZ775": 3,
        "PKZ776": 3,
        "PKZ777": 3,
        "PKZ778": 5,
        "PKZ781": 3,
        "PKZ786": 3,
        "PKZ787": 4,
        "PKZ801": 1,
        "PKZ802": 1,
        "PKZ805": 1,
        "PKZ811": 1,
        "PKZ815": 1,
        "PKZ816": 3,
        "PKZ817": 1,
        "PKZ850": 1,
        "PKZ851": 4,
        "PKZ852": 1,
        "PKZ853": 2,
        "PKZ854": 2,
        "PKZ857": 4,
        "PRC081": 1,
        "PRC083": 1,
        "PRC093": 1,
        "PZZ210": 1,
        "PZZ350": 1,
        "PZZ356": 2,
        "PZZ370": 1,
        "PZZ376": 2,
        "PZZ470": 1,
        "PZZ475": 1,
        "PZZ570": 1,
        "PZZ645": 1,
        "PZZ650": 2,
        "PZZ655": 1,
        "PZZ670": 1,
        "PZZ673": 2,
        "PZZ676": 2,
        "RIC005": 1,
        "RIC009": 1,
        "RIZ006": 1,
        "RIZ007": 1,
        "RIZ008": 1,
        "SCC019": 1,
        "SCC029": 1,
        "SCC043": 1,
        "SCC051": 1,
        "SCZ049": 1,
        "SCZ050": 1,
        "SCZ054": 1,
        "SCZ056": 1,
        "SDC007": 1,
        "SDC019": 1,
        "SDC031": 1,
        "SDC033": 1,
        "SDC041": 1,
        "SDC047": 1,
        "SDC055": 1,
        "SDC063": 1,
        "SDC065": 1,
        "SDC071": 1,
        "SDC075": 1,
        "SDC081": 1,
        "SDC085": 1,
        "SDC093": 2,
        "SDC095": 1,
        "SDC102": 1,
        "SDC103": 1,
        "SDC105": 1,
        "SDC117": 1,
        "SDC121": 1,
        "SDC123": 1,
        "SDC137": 2,
        "SDZ001": 1,
        "SDZ002": 1,
        "SDZ003": 1,
        "SDZ012": 1,
        "SDZ013": 1,
        "SDZ014": 1,
        "SDZ015": 1,
        "SDZ025": 1,
        "SDZ033": 1,
        "SDZ035": 1,
        "SDZ045": 1,
        "SDZ048": 1,
        "SDZ072": 1,
        "SDZ073": 1,
        "SDZ078": 1,
        "SDZ322": 1,
        "SDZ324": 1,
        "SDZ325": 1,
        "SDZ326": 1,
        "SDZ329": 1,
        "SDZ330": 1,
        "SDZ331": 1,
        "SDZ332": 1,
        "SDZ333": 1,
        "SDZ334": 1,
        "SDZ335": 1,
        "TXC039": 1,
        "TXC047": 1,
        "TXC061": 1,
        "TXC167": 1,
        "TXC201": 1,
        "TXC215": 1,
        "TXC261": 1,
        "TXC427": 1,
        "TXC489": 1,
        "TXZ213": 1,
        "TXZ237": 1,
        "TXZ238": 1,
        "TXZ250": 1,
        "TXZ251": 1,
        "TXZ252": 1,
        "TXZ253": 1,
        "TXZ254": 1,
        "TXZ255": 1,
        "TXZ313": 1,
        "TXZ337": 1,
        "TXZ338": 1,
        "TXZ353": 1,
        "TXZ437": 1,
        "TXZ438": 1,
        "TXZ439": 1,
        "VAC001": 1,
        "VAC013": 1,
        "VAC053": 2,
        "VAC099": 1,
        "VAC131": 1,
        "VAC133": 1,
        "VAC149": 2,
        "VAC183": 2,
        "VAC193": 1,
        "VAC510": 1,
        "VAC610": 1,
        "VAC810": 1,
        "VAZ054": 1,
        "VAZ057": 1,
        "VAZ075": 1,
        "VAZ077": 1,
        "VAZ098": 1,
        "VAZ099": 1,
        "VAZ100": 1,
        "WYC001": 2,
        "WYC007": 2,
        "WYC009": 1,
        "WYC013": 1,
        "WYC025": 1,
        "WYC029": 1,
        "WYC031": 1,
        "WYC037": 1,
        "WYZ003": 1,
        "WYZ019": 1,
        "WYZ020": 1,
        "WYZ101": 1,
        "WYZ103": 1,
        "WYZ104": 1,
        "WYZ105": 1,
        "WYZ107": 1,
        "WYZ110": 1
    }
}

[sullynole]

Agree it was likely the monthly Tsunami Warning test message sent yesterday

https://api.weather.gov/alerts?event=Tsunami%20Warning

https://api.weather.gov/alerts/urn:oid:2.49.0.1.840.0.ab49c54f44948f4363a9da7c66855c248309ba23.001.1

[JJKraw]

Indeed, the zone codes with the province abbreviations appear in the alert. So we have half an answer (where did they come from?). The remaining part of the question is why there are undefined zones with those abbreviations included in the test message.

Good call, arkherz!

[sullynole]

The Tsunami Warning Center which issued that test mesaage has international responsibility in Canada but api.weather.gov is only set up for US zones.