diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 523b8f309d0..e1189040620 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -10,11 +10,12 @@
 - When a jinja value is undefined, give a helpful error instead of failing with cryptic "cannot pickle ParserMacroCapture" errors ([#2110](https://github.com/fishtown-analytics/dbt/issues/2110), [#2184](https://github.com/fishtown-analytics/dbt/pull/2184))
 - Added timeout to registry download call ([#2195](https://github.com/fishtown-analytics/dbt/issues/2195), [#2228](https://github.com/fishtown-analytics/dbt/pull/2228))
 - When a macro is called with invalid arguments, include the calling model in the output ([#2073](https://github.com/fishtown-analytics/dbt/issues/2073), [#2238](https://github.com/fishtown-analytics/dbt/pull/2238))
+- When a warn exception is not in a jinja do block, return an empty string instead of None ([#2222](https://github.com/fishtown-analytics/dbt/issues/2222), [#2259](https://github.com/fishtown-analytics/dbt/pull/2259))
 
 Contributors:
  - [@raalsky](https://github.com/Raalsky) ([#2224](https://github.com/fishtown-analytics/dbt/pull/2224), [#2228](https://github.com/fishtown-analytics/dbt/pull/2228))
  - [@ilkinulas](https://github.com/ilkinulas) [#2199](https://github.com/fishtown-analytics/dbt/pull/2199)
-
+ - [@jeremyyeo](https://github.com/jeremyyeo) [#2259](https://github.com/fishtown-analytics/dbt/pull/2259)
 
 ## dbt 0.16.0 (March 23, 2020)
 
diff --git a/core/dbt/exceptions.py b/core/dbt/exceptions.py
index e7e0cae9445..6aac220c88b 100644
--- a/core/dbt/exceptions.py
+++ b/core/dbt/exceptions.py
@@ -819,7 +819,8 @@ def warn_or_raise(exc, log_fmt=None):
 def warn(msg, node=None):
     # there's no reason to expose log_fmt to macros - it's only useful for
     # handling colors
-    return warn_or_error(msg, node=node)
+    warn_or_error(msg, node=node)
+    return ""
 
 
 # Update this when a new function should be added to the
diff --git a/test/integration/013_context_var_tests/emit-warning-models/warnings.sql b/test/integration/013_context_var_tests/emit-warning-models/warnings.sql
index 1b5f33278a8..078e66c9bdf 100644
--- a/test/integration/013_context_var_tests/emit-warning-models/warnings.sql
+++ b/test/integration/013_context_var_tests/emit-warning-models/warnings.sql
@@ -1,2 +1,3 @@
 {% do exceptions.warn('warning: everything is terrible but not that terrible') %}
+{{ exceptions.warn("warning: everything is terrible but not that terrible") }}
 select 1 as id