2 January 2007

What do we think about warnings?

| johnboy
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The Canberra Times is running some outrage about the warnings issued for the New Year’s Eve storms.

How much warning do we really expect for what are, by their very nature, unpredictable events?

And how many false alarms are we willing to put up with?

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I heard somewhere on the grapevine that the jobs went into the 3odd thousand at one stage – although that was listening into the wind during a particularly large wind.

I must admit that when I watched the news broadcast to hear that we had been upgraded from some other colour into ‘blue’, I frankly had absolutely no idea what that was meant to mean.

I got into my car and drove to the new years party that I was going to.

If you know of anybody that was dicked around by the telephone service or the conduct of the operator, put them onto me.

I can’t do anything about it but we often get to talk with our supervisors and air our greivances – ammunition is always welcome.

While you can view the weather bureau thunderstorm warnings on the BOM website, are the SES warnings available online too? And are they one and the same thing? When you go to the NSW SES website (can’t open the ACT one at the moment) the link “Current warnings” takes you to BOM. The severe thunderstorm warning on New Year’s Eve was up on the BOM website for hours before the storms actually hit, but the SES TV message didn’t appear until much later. Just curious.

I’ve just looked out the window, and there’s still a lot of cloud about – shouldn’t there be warnings that a storm might be coming?

I mean people may have their washing out and it could get wet, or even worse, blown off the clothesline into the dirt?

Thumper who answers SES calls? I believe people had a lot of trouble getting through to anyone on the night. (just asking, not criticising)

Fuck sake what a carry on. Was an impressive storm but stiff shit it happens. Like others i tracked it from here

VYBerlinaV8_now with_added_grunt4:16 pm 02 Jan 07

What?! Take responsibility for my own actions?! That’s not Canberra. Hell, that’s not even Queanbeyan.

Why when something bad happens is everyone in this town so instantly looking for someone to blame?
Blame the pollies, blame the ESA, blame the teachers, blame the media, blame George Gregan, anyone but the fool in the mirror…

Surely if you hear some thunder, stick your head out the window and see a black/green sky, it’s a fair bet there’s a storm about???
Time to fire up the weather bureau’s radar site and take responsibility for your own safety then isn’t it?

I was tracking the storm on the weather bureau’s radar site during Sunday afternoon. It had been building up for some time in the far south before it made its move. I was also checking the weather bureau’s ACT forecast, and even after the storm passed, next to the word ‘Warnings’, was the word ‘nil’. That probably means the ACT bureau didn’t have anyone on duty to update the forecast.(It was Sunday after all, but then, storms don’t get weekends off) So the warning that was finally issued, that prompted the ESA warning, must have come out of Sydney. My guess is that the Sydney office doesn’t keep a constant watch on radar screns, and missed this one until it was too late. What really annoyed me though, was the message across the television screens warning of the danger l-o-n-g after the storm has passed. That sort of inefficiency will only encourage complacency in the future.

“For a storm like that on the weekend, what can you really do about it anyway?”

Hide in an underground bunker – but make sure there’s good drainage. 🙂

Too many warnings and people start igorning them. For a storm like that on the weekend, what can you really do about it anyway?

VYBerlinaV8_now with_added_grunt12:08 pm 02 Jan 07

If there are warnings and nothing happens people whinge. If something happens and there are no warnings people whinge.

With things like weather, warnings are nothing more than an advice that risk factors for a certain event are at or above a specific threshold. How the public interprets this is their own problem.

When I hear of severe thunderstorm warnings, I generally move my cars into the garage, call the dog in, and check there’s nothing too fragile outside my house that I might need. If the storm doesn’t hit, that doesn’t matter. A degree of common sense is called for here.

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