diff --git a/src/service/resources/TICKscript/relative-template.tick b/src/service/resources/TICKscript/relative-template.tick
index 1e71cf582e8db60f1e4228056ea29a620b40b648..2363ef4e2ddd284040e825af1433c2ee658e6ee1 100644
--- a/src/service/resources/TICKscript/relative-template.tick
+++ b/src/service/resources/TICKscript/relative-template.tick
@@ -23,9 +23,14 @@ var current = batch
     |query('SELECT ' + influxFunction + '(' + field + ') AS value FROM "' + db + '"."' + rp + '"."' + measurement + '" WHERE ' + whereClause)
         .period(alertPeriod)
         .every(alertPeriod)
+        .align()
 
-var past = current
-    .offset(alertPeriod)
+var past = batch
+    |query('SELECT ' + influxFunction + '(' + field + ') AS value FROM "' + db + '"."' + rp + '"."' + measurement + '" WHERE ' + whereClause)
+        .period(alertPeriod)
+        .every(alertPeriod)
+        .offset(alertPeriod)
+        .align()
     | shift(alertPeriod)
 
 past
diff --git a/src/test/clmctest/alerts/test_alerts.py b/src/test/clmctest/alerts/test_alerts.py
index 2f338b5c335d34a75e49ac4ba1d1325c02e9d50a..e5535f459f117cbcd5d2b7cc5effc522c6c07360 100644
--- a/src/test/clmctest/alerts/test_alerts.py
+++ b/src/test/clmctest/alerts/test_alerts.py
@@ -77,11 +77,12 @@ class TestAlerts(object):
         sleep(10)
 
         print("Sending test requests to nginx...")
-        for i in range(20):
+        for i in range(40):
             response = get("http://{0}:{1}/".format(nginx_host, NGINX_PORT))
             assert response.status_code == 200
+            sleep(0.25)
 
-        print("Wait 20 seconds for Kapacitor to trigger alerts...")
-        sleep(20)
+        print("Wait 15 seconds for Kapacitor to trigger alerts...")
+        sleep(15)
 
         assert len(listdir(LOG_TEST_FOLDER_PATH)) == 4, "4 log files must have been created - one for each alert defined in the specification."