Wttr: Console-oriented weather forecast service (github.com)

I'm in danger of being "Warning-ed" out. Watches are different and will always get my attention. Especially after the recent overreaction to sending out way more flood warnings even when it is not any where near me is just getting me to not bother with them.

I know this is the danger the forecasters face. I can appreciate how they clearly stated the issue was now over in a very quick time though.

porkloin · 8h ago

I grew up in coastal AK and I can't remember more than one time that we faced evacuation orders. We had weekly tests of our tsunami alarm system, but I only ever heard them operated in a non-test that one time. I still keep a close eye on it every time there is an earthquake in the area that triggers a warning because I have family there.

In the last few years there has been a significant uptick in the number of alerts that trigger sirens, orders to evacuate to higher ground, etc. Talking to people back home, it seems like they're "warning-ed out" as you say and are beginning to tune it out.

A 7.3 magnitude quake absolutely can trigger a tsunami big enough to threaten your life, so the NTWC is 100% doing the right thing. I also agree that they need to be careful about perception, and careful about stoking panic. A few years ago, a pedestrian in my home town was struck and killed by a car driving to higher ground during a tsunami warning. There wasn't any tsunami activity that day, but the pedestrian is still dead.

It's impossible to completely attribute the death to the state of alarm/evacuation, but it's not hard to see how a driver and a pedestrian in that situation might be less than completely attentive due to the loud sirens, increased traffic to unusual areas, etc.

chrbr · 7h ago

Aren't warnings always positioned as being a more immediate threat than watches?

https://www.weather.gov/safety/tsunami-alerts

senkora · 7h ago

+1. We really need better words for this because I have to look up which is worse every time.

misswaterfairy · 2h ago

Australia seems to have gotten this right, after its experiences of the Black Saturday bushfires.

https://www.australianwarningsystem.com.au/

Below are the three alert levels for all hazards in Australia, including tsunami:

- Advice: An incident has started. There is no immediate danger. Stay up to date in case the situation changes.

- Watch and Act: There is a heightened level of threat. Conditions are changing and you need to start taking action now to protect you and your family.

- Emergency Warning: You may be in danger and need to take action immediately. Any delay now puts your life at risk.

The scale slides up and down, but can immediately be set to Emergency Warning if the situation demands it.

They can also be further defined with 'Calls to Action': - 'Monitor conditions' - 'Prepare now' - 'Seek shelter immediately' - 'Move to higher ground immediately'

Siren systems aren't widespread across the country, though systems are popping up in some flood-prone parts of Queensland. Sirens are typically activated when the 'Emergency Warning' alert level is reached.

cj · 7h ago

A little trick: If you think of both words as verbs, one is intuitively worse than the other. (I agree thinking of them as nouns is confusing)

dylan604 · 7h ago

You're watching out for something so that you can then warn people when it is happening. An example would be someone on fire watch. If they see a fire, they warn everyone. Emergency responders like fire departments have terms like Third Watch (hence the TV show) for the crew pulling the overnight shift.

So more than considering noun/verb, the subject is key. You're watching the storm for a tornado. You're not watching the tornado.

sejje · 7h ago

Right, so:

Warning, tornadoes might occur.

Watch out, we saw a tornado!

dylan604 · 7h ago

No. You've reversed them.

We're watching out for a tornado because the conditions are right for them.

You're now warned a tornado is coming after it is confirmed.

arcfour · 4h ago

You are watching for something that might happen, in case it does happen.

You are warning others that something dangerous has happened, because you have seen it. There is an actual danger.

This has always been intuitive for me (once it was first explained at least), so I'm surprised it isn't for others.

op00to · 8h ago

How would you handle the situation differently?

dylan604 · 8h ago

I don't think what tsunami.gov did is bad. It was an event that requires immediate notifications. They did. It also was quickly de-escalated and updated that it was no longer a threat. Great.

It's the knee jerk reaction to now over-notifying flood warnings in Texas that has me numb now. The entire Texas government should be embarrassed by the whole thing, but I know they are not which makes me even more embarrassed for them. So to look like they are doing something they've overreacted and now made it annoying instead of actually useful.

So, I guess if I had my druthers, I'd replace the Texas government with competent people. Instead, maybe for the better, I'm not in charge and we have gerrymandered elections. I'm avoiding using the word rigged elections to avoid getting lumped in with the 2020 crowd, but when you draw the districts in such a way, what else do you call it?

op00to · 8h ago

Right, it’s more that you don’t trust the existing alerts because morons are issuing them than that there are too many. I totally get that! If you knew the alerts were coming from someone who knew what they were doing, you’d tolerate them.

They do the same thing with Amber Alerts in my area. It got to a point where it was multiple times a week, it’s common sense to tune it out or turn ‘em off.

dylan604 · 7h ago

In this case, the local morons didn't do anything with the notices they were provided, so even the phone alerts did not go out. This was then a double whammy because it was deep night when most people are in their deepest sleep.

It's also the fact that the moron's past decisions specifically about this have come to light where they decided to spend money elsewhere. That never looks good. So unless that money cured cancer or something in that realm, it won't be any less horrible than if it was used to pay for upgrading government offices.

jasonthorsness · 8h ago

@waEMD (Washington State Emergency Management) tweeted this a couple of hours ago:

We have now been told there is NO DANGER for Washington state from this earthquake in Alaska. Scientists had to wait to examine the wave heights arriving at DART tsunami buoys -- and those sensors now indicate there is NO DANGER for our coastline. #wawx

nocsi · 6h ago

Glad I had the inkling to hoard gallons of fresh water and canned anchovies just this past week. I'm in Seattle btw, I remember this year we had a power outage the neighborhood people spent the entire week huddling around a fire in the culdesac.

And if the earthquake doesn't scare them, the volcano that triggers will. And if they're still not prepared, there's also the tsunami.

olddustytrail · 8h ago

I didn't realise Alaska had that southern archipelago but even before I checked it definitely looks like it traces a fault line.

porkloin · 8h ago

Yep, the 1964 earthquake that occurred in the area is to this day the most powerful earthquake recorded in North America and the second most powerful in the entire world. The region is insanely seismically active, even compared to the west coast of the continental US.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_Alaska_earthquake

Electricniko · 6h ago

Yep, it's along the ring of fire where most of the world's earthquakes occur.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_of_Fire

lysace · 8h ago

Random: I wonder if the Thai tsunami alert network still works. It was built after the horrible events in december of 2004.

Enough time (20-ish years) and government/junta chaos has passed for this question to be relevant.