The National Weather Service will soon start sending severe weather advisories to smartphone users through a nationwide emergency alert system.

The new system, called the Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA), will send text messages to people facing extreme weather conditions, such as tornadoes, flash floods, hurricanes, and blizzards.

WEA meassages will send automatically to any smartphone in the area of the severe weather.

Users do not have to sign up or pay for the service, and anyone who does not want to receive the alerts can opt out.

Most wireless carriers support the service.

More information about the weather alerts is available at .National Weather Service