Botched NWS Test Triggers Fake Tsunami Warning

Did yous receive a button notification on your phone this morning almost a tsunami alert in your area? Don't be alarmed: there is no actual tsunami threat in the The states at this time.

Residents of the Eastward Coast, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean received the bogus push notification from AccuWeather today, though the company deflected blame onto the National Weather Service.

"Astringent Atmospheric condition Warning," the notification read. "Tsunami Warning in effect."

Just got a Tsunami Alarm for New York, merely apparently it's only a test. Thanks for the morning panic attack, @accuweather! ????‍?? picture show.twitter.com/0Be0helrbw
— Katia Del Negro (@KatiaDelNegro) Feb six, 2022

In a statement, AccuWeather said a "miscoded" National Weather Service test alarm triggered the fake alarm. "AccuWeather has the most sophisticated organisation for passing on NWS seismic sea wave warnings based on a complete computer scan of the codes used by the NWS," the company wrote. "While the words 'TEST' were in the header, the actual codes read by computers used coding for real alert, indicating information technology was a existent warning."

The company went on to say that the warning "also later appeared on other sources such as The Weather Channel and it fifty-fifty appears on some pages of the NWS own website every bit a existent alert."

The NWS confirmed there is no actual tsunami threat and said it's "looking into" the affair. The agency denied disseminating the bogus alert on whatsoever of its official communication channels.

Meanwhile, AccuWeather'due south CEO Barry Myers said this not the first time the NWS has messed upwards its coding and triggered fake alerts. Myers said he wrote to the NWS in Oct. 2022 predicting this would happen.

"The responsibleness is on the NWS to properly and consistently code the messages, for merely they know if the message is correct or not," the company wrote. "We are continuing to piece of work with NWS to determine why this coding was improperly embedded in its test warning system."

The alarm comes several week after the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency accidentally sent a ballistic missile alert test out to all residents in the area, creating widespread panic.

About Angela Moscaritolo

Angela Moscaritolo

Angela Moscaritolo is PCMag's expert on fitness and smart home products. Pedagogy yoga for nearly x years has helped her in evaluating a range of connected wellness products including fitness trackers, heart rate monitors, rowers, smart scales, stationary bikes, force training machines, treadmills, and more than. Angela also tests smart home devices from her ranch in Florida, including air purifiers, kitchen appliances, and robot vacuums, just to name a few.