CHANHASSEN, Minn. — The National Weather Service (NWS) announced on Thursday an update to its Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) system, including a new category to its severe thunderstorm warnings.
According to a press release, starting Aug. 2, the NWS will be adding a "damage threat" tag for people, so they can receive mobile alerts when certain weather-related emergencies in their area.
While there will three categories – destructive, considerable and baseline – only storms that are classified as "destructive" will trigger a mobile notification.
The three categories are described as:
- Destructive damage threat: At least 2.75 inch diameter (baseball-sized) hail and/or 80 mph thunderstorm winds. Warnings with this tag will automatically activate a Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) on smartphones within the warned area.
- Considerable damage threat: At least 1.75 inch diameter (golf ball-sized) hail and/or 70 mph thunderstorm winds. This will not activate a WEA.
- Baseline or "base" damage threat: 1.00 inch (quarter-sized) hail and/or 58 mph thunderstorm winds. This will not activate a WEA. When no damage threat tag is present, damage is expected to be at the base level.
The system mirrors a system they've already adopted for tornado warnings and flash flood warnings, according to the release.
The NWS says only about 10% of all severe thunderstorms nationwide reach the "destructive" level.
For more information about the update, click here.
