The National Weather Service App Platform integration gives Gladly AI live NWS data during a Conversation: active watches, warnings and advisories, alerts from the past week, and seven-day forecasts. Gladly AI can tell a Customer whether weather is affecting their order, explain what happened when a package ran late, or share what to expect for an upcoming event. The NWS API is free and public, so there is no account or API key to set up.
Key benefits
Explain weather delays before the Customer asks twice
When a Customer asks where their order is, Gladly AI checks the shipping state for active warnings. It can say that a hurricane, flood, or winter storm is affecting the area, including the alert NWS issued and the areas it covers.
Answer questions about delays that already happened
Alerts NWS issued in the last 7 days are available, including ones that have since expired. A message like "my package was late last week" gets an answer grounded in what NWS actually issued for that state and window.
Forecasts for advice and recommendations
A seven-day forecast for any US location lets Gladly AI answer "will it rain Saturday?" and suggest products to match, such as rain gear for an outdoor event or a warmer layer for a cold week.
Nothing to configure
The app needs no account, credentials, or settings. Install it, activate the configuration, and add the actions to a Guide.
Supported features
The National Weather Service App Platform integration is available in the following area of Gladly:
Gladly AI
All five actions can be called as part of a Guide. Gladly AI supplies a place from the Conversation or the order (a state, a set of coordinates, or a forecast grid) and gets back NWS data along with a plain-language summary it can relay to the Customer. Every action is read-only.
Details
What data can you access
Weather alerts
Event type (for example, Flood Warning or Winter Storm Watch), severity, urgency, and certainty
Headline and the areas the alert covers
When the alert was sent, when it takes effect, and when it ends or expires, in local time
Whether the message is a new alert or an update, and which NWS office issued it
NWS's description of the hazard and its safety instructions, each up to 600 characters
For active alerts: the total number that matched and how many were returned
For recent alerts: the date range the results cover, and whether NWS issued more than were returned
Locations
City, state, and time zone for a latitude and longitude
The NWS forecast office and grid that cover the point, which the forecast action needs
Forecasts
Fourteen twelve-hour periods covering seven days (for example, "Tonight" or "Thursday")
For each period: temperature, chance of precipitation, wind speed and direction, a short forecast, and a detailed forecast
When NWS last updated the forecast
Available actions
Get active alerts by area: Takes a two-letter state or territory code (TX, LA, PR, GU) or an NWS marine area code (GM for the Gulf, AM for the western Atlantic). Returns the active alerts for that area, most severe first, up to 10, with the total that matched and the area covered by the most severe one.
Get active alerts for a location: Takes a latitude and longitude. Returns the active alerts covering that exact point, most severe first, up to 10. This is more precise than a whole-state lookup when the Customer names a city, address, or venue.
Get recent alerts: Takes a state, territory, or marine area code. Returns alerts NWS issued in the last 7 days, including expired ones, newest first, up to the 25 most recent. For a busy state that can cover only a day or two, so the response states which dates it covers and Gladly AI does not speak to days it did not see.
Get location info: Takes a latitude and longitude. Returns the city, state, time zone, and NWS forecast office and grid for that point. Offshore and remote points have no land forecast, and the response says so.
Get forecast: Takes a forecast office and grid, as returned by Get location info. Returns the seven-day forecast in twelve-hour periods.
How does the lookup work?
This app does not match customers or read Customer Profile data. Gladly AI passes a place to the action, and NWS returns data for that place:
State, territory, or marine area: Used for the area-wide alert lookups.
Latitude and longitude: Used for point-level alerts and for location info.
Forecast office and grid: Taken from Get location info and used to request the forecast.
When NWS cannot answer (a location outside the US, a temporary outage, or rate limiting), the action returns a message saying so rather than an empty result. Gladly AI then tells the Customer it could not check, instead of saying the weather is clear.
Key use cases
1. "Where is my order?" during severe weather
Use case: A Customer asks why their order has not arrived.
How it works: Before checking the carrier, Gladly AI looks up active alerts for the order's shipping state. If a hurricane or winter storm warning is in effect for the delivery area, it tells the Customer what NWS has issued and which areas are affected.
Business impact: The Customer gets a real reason in the first reply, and the Conversation does not need to be handed off for a status the weather already explains.
2. Explain a delay that already happened
Use case: A Customer says their package arrived late last week and wants to know why.
How it works: Gladly AI looks up the alerts NWS issued for that state over the past 7 days, including expired ones, and checks whether any covered the delivery area during that window.
Business impact: Delay complaints are answered with what NWS actually issued, which helps the Team decide whether a concession is warranted.
Notes and limitations
Every action is read-only. The app never writes to NWS or changes Gladly data.
The app runs only when Gladly AI calls an action from a Guide. There is no Customer Profile card.
NWS data covers the US, its territories, and marine areas. Locations outside the US are not supported.
Active alert lookups return up to 10 alerts, and the recent alerts lookup returns up to 25.