You’re about to get a lot fewer flash flood alerts on your phone – By Nicolas Rivero (Quartz) / Nov 25 2019
The US National Weather Service (NWS) issues more than 4,000 flash flood warnings each year, and until now, every single one of them has triggered a wireless emergency alert—the blaring notifications that pop up on your phone to warn of severe weather in your area.
But starting in January, the NWS will cut the number of flood alerts Americans receive by about 80%, and only send notifications for potentially life-threatening floods that fall under the agency’s highest threat categories.
Part of the motivation for muzzling alerts came from a recent deluge of complaints from users angry that their phones woke them up in the middle of the night to warn of floods that never materialized. As smartphones bring emergency alerts to our pockets and nightstands, authorities are struggling to figure out how to balance their mission to keep the public informed with the risk of sending so many notifications that people start to tune them out.
“We don’t want to desensitize people to our warning messages,” said NWS hydrologist Daniel Roman. “We want to limit the number of wireless emergency alerts they’re getting so that they can focus on taking life-saving action.”
Meanwhile, authorities are overhauling the wireless emergency alert system for all hazard warnings to make them more informative, better targeted and—they hope—less frustrating for users.
Continue to article: https://qz.com/1754923/national-weather-service-will-cut-down-on-emergency-phone-alerts/
