Test Message Goes Awry…

Wednesday afternoon, January 7, 2004 was beautiful in the Washington, D.C. area. Skies were clear and temperatures were cool. The biggest news was that Joe Gibbs was returning to bring the Redskins back to former glory. A snowstorm was the furthest thing from the minds of forecaster at the National Weather Service in Sterling, Virginia, which services Washington and Baltimore.

Suddenly, subscribers to services like our very own E-Warn began getting messages on their pagers, cell phones, PDAs and by email that Winter Storm Warnings had been issued for the D.C. Metro area. Three minutes later, that message was followed by another urgent message that a Blizzard Warning had been issued for the area. The messages automatically flashed on television screens of local network affiliates. Services like WeatherBug popped the alerts on the screens of computer users. Official NWS warning maps on the web showed the incongruous Blizzard Warnings. Phones began to light up. Forecasters at Sterling were shocked to see the warnings pop up on their terminals. The message said they had issued the warnings, but, of course, they had not. It came from the NWS facility at Silver Spring, Maryland, where testing and development is done. It was not the first time that test messages had been sent out live through dissemination systems. No harm, no foul, but officials have reportedly taken steps to prevent future occurrences.

Category: Uncategorized