Automation
Storm Mode
Severe weather alert from the National Weather Service automatically calms motion sensitivity. No more 50 false alerts during a thunderstorm.
What it is
Storm mode is an automated feature that pulls real-time severe weather alerts from the National Weather Service for your location and adjusts your camera motion sensitivity to compensate for environmental motion (wind, rain, lightning, debris). It activates and deactivates automatically based on weather conditions.
How it works
Step by step.
NWS issues severe weather alert
The National Weather Service issues a thunderstorm, tornado, hurricane, or other severe weather watch/warning for your area.
Halstead pulls the alert
Halstead's system polls the NWS API for active alerts at your registered location. When a relevant alert is active, storm mode automatically activates.
Sensitivity adjusts
Motion sensitivity reduces, AI motion classification deprioritizes environmental categories (debris, weather), and notification thresholds increase. The system continues recording everything but stops sending you alerts about wind-blown branches.
Person and vehicle detection still works
AI motion classification continues to identify person and vehicle motion, which still triggers alerts as normal. The only thing that's suppressed is environmental motion that would otherwise be flagged.
Alert expires, normal mode resumes
When the NWS alert expires or is canceled, storm mode automatically deactivates and your normal sensitivity returns. No manual reset required.
Why it matters
During a severe thunderstorm, hurricane, or tornado event, traditional motion-detection security can fire dozens or hundreds of alerts as wind moves leaves, rain hits cameras, and debris flies through the field of view. After the first dozen alerts, users learn to ignore their security entirely — which means a real intrusion happening during the storm goes unnoticed. Storm mode prevents this alert fatigue without losing detection of real intrusions.
Common questions
Will I miss real intrusions during storms?+
No. Person and vehicle detection continues to function normally during storm mode — only environmental motion is suppressed. If a real intrusion happens during a storm, you'll still get the alert.
What weather conditions trigger storm mode?+
Halstead activates storm mode for: severe thunderstorm watches and warnings, tornado watches and warnings, hurricane watches and warnings, high wind warnings, and tropical storm warnings. Lower-severity alerts (heat advisories, frost warnings) don't activate storm mode.
Can I manually activate storm mode?+
Yes. From the app you can manually enable storm mode if you have local weather conditions that haven't yet triggered a formal NWS alert. Useful in coastal areas during developing weather situations.
What about hurricane evacuations?+
When you evacuate, you can combine storm mode with vacation mode for full coverage. Storm mode suppresses environmental motion alerts. Vacation mode increases sensitivity for actual person/vehicle detection. Together, they give you minimal noise during the storm and quick alerts if there's looting after the storm passes.