More information is coming to light about the situation involving erroneous tornado test messaging earlier this week.
Shortly after FEMA’s Wireless Emergency Alert system sent down a test message that eliminated all test references as written by the National Weather Service on Tuesday, the Weather Service said new coding for its Common Alerting Protocol Handler let the test go out over the WEA network when it shouldn’t have done so. It also coded the message as an actual warning instead of a test alert.
If there was one bit of good news coming from Tuesday, it’s an indication of how powerful the WEA alert system can be as well as its place in the warning system. Weather Service meteorologist Chad Omitt explains:
FEMA concurs with the Weather Service in its assessment of Tuesday’s situation, blaming an error in Weather Service systems for what appeared as live tornado warnings on cell phones instead of the original test message. It says the Weather Service is one of 1,500-plus agencies which uses FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System, where WEA originates. FEMA says it does not review individual messages sent by “authorized public alerting authority users” like the Weather Service.
Statement by the National Weather Service
A test of our tornado warning system today as part of Severe Weather Awareness Week was not intended to be broadcast as a Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA). The new code for a Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) Handler, implemented last week, mistakenly allowed the test to go out over WEA as an actual warning. The software was fixed immediately.
Statement by the Federal Emergency Management Agency
Yesterday, the National Weather Service accidentally sent a tornado warning message to mobile phones as a Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) through the FEMA Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS). An error in NWS systems sent the live tornado warning message text instead of appropriately inserting test message information for display on mobile phones.
The NWS is one of more than 1,500 agencies authorized as a public alerting authorities to use the FEMA IPAWS system to send alerts to mobile phones as Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) as well as radio and television as Emergency Alert System (EAS) broadcasts. FEMA does not review individual messages sent by authorized public alerting authority users.
