NOAA is changing the way you receive flash flood alerts on your mobile device, hopefully so you get fewer alerts. According to a statement from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, "Flash flood warnings now have damage threat tags, so WEAs will be issued for only the most life-threatening flood events — with a damage threat tag of “considerable” or “catastrophic"."
Image Credit: NOAA
Let's be clear, though; we are talking about WEA's - Wireless Emergency Alerts. Your WDRB Weather app will continue to work the same way it always has. The WEA system is the project between FEMA, the FCC, and the wireless industry that sends you Amber Alerts, presidential announcements of national emergencies, and severe weather alerts.
For now NOAA is just changing the flash flood alerts because those are the ones that people have complained about the most. This change went into effect on February 19, 2020. WEA is also changing some of their formatting in the near future in addition to these changes from NOAA. Soon WEAs will be able to use 360 characters instead of the current 90 character limit and will be adding both English and Spanish messaging in the single alert. Another way they hope to cut down on the number of alerts you receive from the system is through more specific geotargeting which, "will allow wireless service providers to broadcast an alert to all phones in a targeted area, with no more than 1/10th of a mile (or 528 feet) of overshoot. The goal is to reduce the number of alerts reaching people safely outside of the affected warning area. (Note: The system doesn’t locate individual cell phones. If you are traveling and enter an area with an active warning, you will receive a WEA warning.)"
Please remember any time you receive a weather alert, take it seriously especially now that you will receive fewer of them through the WEA system. If it's a Warning, it's time to take action - usually by going to your safe place depending on what the threat is. A Watch means you need to be watching the weather - keep both eyes out for additional updates because, while the threat isn't happening yet, it is not far away.
