At sea, a storm warning is a warning issued by the National Weather Service of the United States when winds between 48 and 63 knots (89 and 117 km/h; 55 and 72 mph) are occurring or predicted to occur soon. The winds must not be associated with a tropical cyclone. If the winds are associated with a tropical cyclone, a tropical storm warning will be substituted for the storm warning and less severe gale warning.
In US maritime warning flag systems, a red square flag with a black square taking up the middle ninth of the flag is used to indicate a storm warning (the use of two such flags denotes a hurricane force wind warning or a hurricane warning). The same flag as a storm warning is used to indicate a tropical storm warning.
