USA TODAY International Edition
Botched tsunami warning test stirs storm of finger-pointing
NWS, AccuWeather find fault with each other
A botched tsunami warning test Tuesday sparked a weather war of words between the National Weather Service and private firm AccuWeather.
And, just to allay any fears, there never was a tsunami threat.
The weather service said its National Tsunami Warning Center sent out a monthly tsunami warning test across much of the nation Tuesday morning. Soon after, some mobile app users ended up with an alert that looked like the real thing.
“The National Tsunami Warning Center did NOT issue a Tsunami Warning, Watch, or Advisory for any part of the United States or Canada this morning,” the center tweeted.
The weather service, which launched an investigation into the incident, issued a statement saying it conducted a routine test around 8:30 a.m. ET. It blamed an unnamed company for the ensuing gaffe.
“The test message was released by at least one private sector company as an official Tsunami Warning, resulting in widespread reports of tsunami warnings received via phones and other media across the East Coast, Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean,” the weather service said.
AccuWeather picked up the wouldbe tsunami alert and pushed it out in numerous cities without mention of a test. The alerts were titled “Severe Weather Alert” and said “Tsunami Warning in effect for (name of city) until 9:28 AM EST. Source: National Weather Service.”
AccuWeather blamed the weather service for the error. AccuWeather acknowledged that the word “TEST” was in the header of the weather service warning, but said the weather service miscoded the test as a real warning.
“AccuWeather was correct in reading the mistaken NWS codes embedded in the warning,” AccuWeather said in a statement. “The responsibility is on the NWS to properly and consistently code the messages, for only they know if the message is correct or not.”
AccuWeather says the weather service warning thus appeared on other sources such as The Weather Channel — and even some pages of the weather service’s own website — as a real warning.
The statement went on to chastise the weather service for similar errors in the past, noting that AccuWeather leadership previously advised the weather service — in writing — that it should clean up its act.
The kerfuffle has another twist: Barry Myers, the chief executive of AccuWeather, has been chosen by President Trump to be the next chief of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which oversees the weather service.
A full Senate vote to approve Myers has not yet occurred.
The tsunami mess comes less than a month after a Hawaii emergency management worker sent a false alert of an incoming missile. The alert caused widespread panic. The worker who sent the alert was fired and the head of the state’s emergency management agency later resigned.