What it is
Amazon Flex blocks get cancelled when a station closes its doors for weather, and the first a driver usually hears of it is at the gate. This tracker watches the public weather picture around every Amazon Flex delivery station and other Amazon site, in the United States and Canada and around the world (the UK, Europe, India, Japan and more), all day, and shows in one place which stations currently have weather reports of the kind that go with a closure: severe weather warnings, tornado warnings, lightning close by. It adds the radar with, in the US, the model's next hour, a 12-hour and 3-day forecast for every station, and free closure alerts by email or phone notification for the stations you choose.
It is an independent tool built by a driver for drivers, run on one small server at stationclosed.com. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates; "Amazon Flex" names the delivery program the tracked stations belong to. Everything here is an unofficial reading of public weather information. Station leadership makes the final call on closures, and a block is never guaranteed either way.
How a station gets its colour
For every station the server gathers the weather reports and advisories currently active for the surrounding area (started, not expired, not cancelled) and ranks them by severity. When the most severe one is at the red level, the station shows as weather reports indicate a closed station. When something is active but below that level, such as lightning in the area or a wind advisory, the station shows as weather advisories near the station. With nothing active, it has no local weather advisories. The kinds of report that count as the red level are listed on the map page under "How this tracker works".
Lightning is handled separately: the server keeps the last 30 minutes of lightning reports from national lightning databases and flags each station with a strike reported within 6 miles (and, more loosely, within 10). Cloud-to-cloud flashes are ignored. The all-clear time is 30 minutes after the latest strike inside 6 miles, which is the rule most stations follow for reopening doors. A tornado icon appears when a station sits inside an active tornado warning polygon from the National Weather Service or, in Canada, Environment Canada.
Where the data comes from
- Advisories, tornado warnings and forecasts: the National Weather Service, through its public data services; for the Canadian stations, Environment Canada's warnings and the city forecast nearest each station. Everywhere else, the forecast and the national weather service's warnings come through Visual Crossing (weather data provided by Visual Crossing), and when its daily allowance is spent, the forecast from MET Norway (data from MET Norway).
- Wind and weather now: the latest report from the airport nearest each station (within 25 miles), anywhere in the world: the wind and gusts measured, thunder heard and lightning seen. In Japan also the nearest of the Japan Meteorological Agency's weather stations, with the day's strongest gust.
- A nearby citizen weather station (outside the US, where one reports within 25 km): its latest public reading. The sheet says how far the station is and how old the reading.
- Official warnings outside the US and Canada, each from the national weather service itself: the Japan Meteorological Agency for Japan, the India Meteorological Department (through NDMA's SACHET) for India, the Met Office for the UK, the Servicio Meteorológico Nacional for Mexico, INMET for Brazil, and MeteoAlarm (EUMETNET) for the rest of Europe. Each shows with its source and time of issue and a link to the original.
- Gusts and thunder ahead, worldwide: NOAA's global forecast model, hour by hour for the next day, for every station outside the US and Canada.
- Radar: NOAA's national base-reflectivity mosaic, which takes in Environment Canada's radars up to about 55°N, redrawn on the tracker's own map. The hour ahead comes from NOAA's short-range forecast model; it reaches about 50°N, so it stops short of Calgary, Edmonton and Saskatoon. Beyond NOAA's reach (the UK, Europe, India, Japan, Mexico, Alaska, Hawaii and the rest), the radar and the minute-by-minute rain for the next few hours come from Rainbow.ai, which blends national radars with satellite.
- Base map: USGS The National Map, and Natural Resources Canada's base map for Canada's streets; elsewhere Natural Earth's coastlines and borders, and from the city zooms in CARTO's street map (© OpenStreetMap contributors, © CARTO).
- Lightning: national lightning databases, refreshed every half minute, for North America, Europe, India, the Middle East, South America, Australia and the Far East, and in Japan also the Japan Meteorological Agency's own lightning network; ground strikes (not cloud flashes) are what count toward the 6-mile rule everywhere. The chance of lightning in the next hour or two reads the storms' tracks, and, outside North America, the global forecast model's thunder signal where the US uses the National Weather Service's outlook.
- Station locations: public station lists (Warehouse.ninja and others). Station security incidents ("Something is going on at the station. It might be closed.") come from police dispatch and local news reports.
- Flexer reports: once accounts are open, signed-in drivers can report a station closed or open from its details; the flag lasts 30 minutes and sits beside the weather status without changing it.
The server fetches all of it once, for everyone; your browser talks to this site, to the ad network while ads are shown, and, when you zoom in on streets outside the US and Canada, to CARTO for its map tiles (CARTO's terms don't allow relaying them). None of the weather services ever sees who you are.
What the map shows you
Accounts and alerts are not open yet, so there is nothing to sign in to: everyone sees every station on the map and in the lists. Once accounts open, a free account will watch its own three stations and get closure alerts for them.
Everyone gets the radar loop over the whole country with the last hour and the next hour, and the forecast for any station they can open. While the ads on the page are showing, the picture updates live, every half minute.
Alerts
Sign in with an email address or a US mobile number and a 6-digit code (there are no passwords). Pick your stations, choose a radius if you want closures nearby too, and save. When weather reports indicate a closure at one of them, you get an email, or a free notification on your phone or computer if you turned those on. The message says which station, gives an estimated reopening time, and warns which block start times may not be cancellable. Nothing is sent between 9 PM and 3 AM local time unless a closure is still going at 3 AM. Every email has a stop link, and texts are only ever sign-in codes.
Questions drivers ask
The tracker says my station is closed, but I got a block there. The tracker reads weather reports, not the station's decision. A red status means the reports around the station are of the kind that usually goes with a closure; a station can stay open through them, and can close without them. Treat it as an early warning and check the Flex app.
Why did the status change back to open so quickly? Weather reports have an end time and lightning has a 30-minute all-clear rule; when they lapse, the status follows. Reopening is the station's call and may come later than the tracker's estimate.
Does it cover Alaska, Hawaii or Puerto Rico? Yes. NOAA's radar mosaic covers the lower 48 states only, so the radar there comes from Rainbow.ai, as it does outside North America.
Does it cover stations outside the US and Canada? Yes: every Amazon site on the public station lists, in the UK, Europe, India, Japan, the Middle East, Latin America and Australia, with the same weather reports and lightning, a forecast, and the radar. The page starts on the country you are in (the United States for a visitor in the US, the United Kingdom in the UK); pick another country, a state or region, or "All countries" in the menu above the list. Alerts and the closure count work the same everywhere.
Does it cover Canada? Yes. Amazon's Canadian stations show the same weather reports and lightning as the US ones, with Environment Canada's forecasts and tornado warnings. Settings switch the tracker to °C, km/h and km.
Can I see stations I don't watch? Search for it at the top of the page. A visitor sees one station at a time, and picking another moves the view there. An account sees the stations it watches (on Ultra, their whole state or province); add a station in your account to see it. Starred stations stay in "Your stations" either way, so switching back is one tap.
Is it free? Yes. Ads pay for part of the server, and the rest runs on donations. The Donate button in the top bar and the banner over the map open PayPal for anyone who wants to help with the upkeep. Donations grant nothing; they just keep the lights on.
Where does my data go? Nowhere. The privacy page lists exactly what the site keeps in your browser and on the server, and how to delete an account.
Contact
Corrections, a station that is missing or misplaced, or anything else: support@stationclosed.com.