diff --git a/pelican/log.py b/pelican/log.py
index b60a1aef63..3eed71aed7 100644
--- a/pelican/log.py
+++ b/pelican/log.py
@@ -136,6 +136,16 @@ def init(
     name=None,
     logs_dedup_min_level=None,
 ):
+    """Initialize the logger.
+
+    :param level: the log level
+    :param fatal: how to set up the FatalLogger.  If "warning", then warnings are fatal.
+                  If fatal is set (including to 'ignore'!) then errors are fatal.
+                  Pass an empty string '' for errors to be non-fatal.
+    :param handler: the logging handler
+    :param name: the name of the logger to use
+    :param logs_dedup_min_level:  the LimitFilter.LOGS_DEDUP_MIN_LEVEL to use
+    """
     FatalLogger.warnings_fatal = fatal.startswith("warning")
     FatalLogger.errors_fatal = bool(fatal)
 
@@ -155,12 +165,13 @@ def init(
         LimitFilter.LOGS_DEDUP_MIN_LEVEL = logs_dedup_min_level
 
 
-def log_warnings():
+def log_warnings(fatal: str) -> None:
+    """Redirect warnings module to use logging instead."""
     import warnings
 
     logging.captureWarnings(True)
     warnings.simplefilter("default", DeprecationWarning)
-    init(logging.DEBUG, name="py.warnings")
+    init(logging.DEBUG, name="py.warnings", fatal=fatal)
 
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":
diff --git a/pelican/tests/__init__.py b/pelican/tests/__init__.py
index 564e417cf5..951cbaab71 100644
--- a/pelican/tests/__init__.py
+++ b/pelican/tests/__init__.py
@@ -4,7 +4,8 @@
 from pelican.log import log_warnings
 
 # redirect warnings module to use logging instead
-log_warnings()
+# The "" of the fatal argument means "don't raise on logging an error"
+log_warnings("")
 
 # setup warnings to log DeprecationWarning's and error on
 # warnings in pelican's codebase