Monday, March 4, 2013

Confusion Alert Caused With Tornado Warning By NWS For Southeastern Wisconsin Cell Smartphone Users

No warning stated on NWS Tornado Warning that it was just a test.

By H. Nelson Goodson
March 4, 2013

Milwaukee,  WI - On Monday, the National Weather Service (NWS) conducted a Tornado Warning test message at 10:29 a.m. that pop up on all cell smartphone user services, e-mails and texting massages for South Central and Southeastern Wisconsin. The message that pop up on all cell phones didn't even warned the cell phone users that it was just a test, but seemed like the real thing. The NWS warning code was off.
No tornado expected for the area, but a Winter snow storm for Tuesday that is expected to dump about 8 inches to a foot of snow as it moves through the state.
A cell phone user posted on Facebook, "Talking about gov't control and it doesn't even say a test or even a warning. Thought it was the Chinese military hacking into the system.  Lmao."
The NWS released the following statement over the confusion during a test for the Severe Weather Preparedness Week.
"A tornado warning was issued by NWS Sullivan in preparation for a statewide severe weather drill on April 18. 
The intent was to issue a test tornado warning. The wording in the warning and in the public information statement issued indicated that it was a test tornado warning.
Unfortunately, we issued this warning with a vtec code of "O" for operational instead of "T" for text. The warning did not go to NOAA weather radio, but it did go out as a live tornado warning through most of the digital vendor services.
There was no threat of a tornado, and we apologize for the confusion and inconvenience that this caused."

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