Nationwide Severe Weather Watches and Warnings - MetService provides Alerts for Strong Wind, Heavy Rain, and Heavy Snow, and Thunderstorms through a system of Outlooks, Watches and Warnings.
Orange Warning - take action Used when the forecast indicates incoming bad weather (expected heavy rain, strong wind or heavy snow) will meet our Severe Weather Criteria. It signifies that people need to be prepared and take action as appropriate as there could be some disruption to their ...
Another way to think about the difference between a watch and a warning is through food. When a watch is issued, it means the ingredients for severe weather are there but not everything has come together yet. So - a cupcake or pizza watch would mean that we have the individual ingredients...
During 2018, MetService recorded 56 severe weather events in New Zealand that reached warning criteria requiring Severe Weather Warnings to be issued. MetService General Manager, Meteorological Operations, Ramon Oosterkamp, says the changes will make it easier for everyone to understand the severity of...
Broadcasters are responsible for sending out emergency weather alerts to their communities so viewers can make informed decisions. Learn more about the types of severe weather alerts and warnings.
of two potential upgrades to severe weather warning information that were tested in the HWT: 1) Threats-In-Motion where warning polygons move continuously with the storm threats, and 2) probabilistic information for locations where the threat levels are currently below warning criteria or for locati...
Traditionally, National Meteorological Services have issued phenomenon-based weather warnings based on fixed criteria (for example, when the wind speed is expected to be higher than a given number) regardless of the expected effects of the event. WMO advocates for a more comprehensive warning system...
Severe Thunderstorm Warning A storm with one or more of the above Watch criteria is imminent, or has actually been seen on radar and/or satellite imagery, or reported by a reliable weather spotter. Tornado Watch Weather conditions - temperature, humidity, atmospheric instability,...
Mississippi Valley. The term "severe weather" is defined as damaging wind gusts over 58 mph and/or hail larger than an inch in diameter, the size of a quarter. This system will likely far exceed these criteria. This promises to be one of the most significant systems ...
analysis and forecast products, are used, (ii) physically-consistent gridded data are provided to forecasters to help make their warning decisions in a timely manner, and (iii) the problem of subjectivity, inherent to some arbitrary criteria in some severe weather detection algorithms, is avoided...