Flood of weather warning terms fuels confusion

When you hear there’s a “flood watch,” do you know what that means? What about a “flood warning”? And what in the world is a “flood advisory?”

Do you have to think about which one is worse?

The National Weather Service is aware there is confusion around the watches, warnings and advisories it issues and is considering making small to dramatic changes to how the agency lets Americans know when and where dangerous weather threatens.

The rampant befuddlement over the terms prompted the launch a few years ago of the hazard simplification project, an endeavor that’s continually seeking input from the public, said Eli Jacks, chief of the agency’s forecast services division. In the next few weeks, a survey asking for comments on winter weather and flooding hazard terms will be available on the project’s website.

So what, exactly, do the names mean? At the most basic level, a watch means there’s the potential for hazardous or dangerous weather, while a warning indicates hazardous or dangerous weather is imminent or occurring, the weather service said. An advisory is issued for hazardous weather that is also imminent or occurring but is “less serious than a warning.”

In all, the weather service has 122 notification conditions, from air quality alerts to winter weather advisories.

“With somany types ofwarnings, it is not surprising that some might downplay a deadly flood threat like we saw in Louisiana earlier this year,” said University of Georgia meteorologist Marshall Shepherd. That disaster killed 13 people and destroyed nearly 150,000 homes.

The impetus for the project was partly due to twister outbreaks in Alabama and Missouri in 2011 that killed hundreds of people despite widespread tornado warnings, Jacks said.