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Weather Warning Alerting FAQ

Who is authorised to issue Weather Warnings in Australia?

The Commonwealth Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) is the government agency responsible for the issue of severe weather, severe thunderstorm, flood, tropical cyclone and other weather warnings in Australia. As such, the EWN Alerts you will receive via the Website, Email or DesktopALERT will be a geographically targeted redistribution of those BoM products. Our SMS alerts are also based on the BoM warnings but will include specific locations that are under threat.

What type of alerts will I receive?

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings

Threats from severe thunderstorms include: Large hail, Flash flooding, Damaging winds or Destructive winds.

Severe thunderstorms represent the most common threat to property and the community throughout the year and are the main type of alert sent by EWN. Alerts are issued to the Website, DesktopALERT, Email and SMS. We may also issue email-only alerts prior to the onset of thunderstorms to indicate it is a particularly volatile afternoon.

The aim of our service is to deliver a timely alert when a severe thunderstorm is near or approaching your registered address. A constant watch is kept on BoM warnings, radar and our observation network to achieve this. However, thunderstorm weather is ever-changing and it is not possible to cover all scenarios. Radar images or warning products can be late, and thunderstorms can and do form and dissipate very quickly at times. It is important to accept that it is almost impossible to alert everyone on time during thunderstorm weather. Often the BoM warnings are not issued until some severe weather has already occurred or been observed.

If you do experience severe weather and did not receive an alert, or received a late alert - please let us know. Occasionally mobile phone networks will experience delays in the delivery of SMS - this is beyond the control of EWN but we'd still like to know if this happens. Please ensure you mention which carrier you are with.

The Bureau of Meteorology is keen to get feedback about hail sizes in particular as this helps verify warnings and radar calibration. Feel free to report all severe weather and comments via the support pages.

Severe Weather Warnings (unrelated to thunderstorms)

Intense low pressure systems and troughs (elongated areas of low pressure) may lead to warnings for phenomena such as:

• Damaging Winds
• Localised Damaging Winds
• Hazardous Winds
• Destructive Winds
• Heavy Rain and Flash Flooding
• Heavy Rain and Possible Flooding
• Damaging Winds and Flash Flooding
• Flash Flooding

EWN will issue Website, DesktopALERT, Email and SMS alerts for these events. There is often a lengthy lead-in time before any severe weather occurs. This does provide plenty of time to prepare, though it also means some events may fail to actually become severe as forecast due the weather patterns being less intense or focusing into another region.

Flood Watches and Flood Warnings

Website, DesktopALERT, Email and SMS alerts are issued for Flood Watches provided a severe weather warning has not already been issued for the same area. Alerts may also be issued for Flood Warnings as the event unfolds. The local community is often very aware of areas prone to flooding and are advised to monitor the Bureau of Meteorology's warnings webpage once they receive the flood watch. Alternatively listen to local ABC radio. Regularly updated river height and rainfall data is available that does not suit the alerting process.

Ideally local government or SES personnel should be utilising our system to alert people living in low lying areas within their jurisdiction. It is very easy to register people in specific streets and locations so that just those people will be alerted in a flood emergency - which typically happens in the middle of the night. SES controllers or council employees responsible for flood management are invited to contact us for an EWN admin login.

Tropical Cyclone Watches and Tropical Cyclone Warnings

Alerts will be issued for tropical cyclone watches and warnings. Again, the local community will know the risks and are advised to monitor the Bureau of Meteorology's warnings webpage directly once they receive the initial alert.

Total Fire Bans

Various state fire authorities issue fire weather warnings and total fire bans which may be redistributed by the BoM. EWN will issue Total Fire Ban notices to the geographic regions they apply to. The alert will typically be sent the day before the ban, or updated in the morning if the areas have extended.

Bushfires

Alerts may be sent via Website, DesktopALERT, Email, SMS and Landline for bushfire threats. This information is sourced from bushfire responders in each state - eg. VIC Country Fire Authority, SA Country Fire Service and the NSW Rural Fire Service. The timeliness of bushfire alerts is dependant on what is made public by the responders.

When will I receive alerts?

Alerts may be sent at any time of the day or night. However we do try to limit alerts sent between the hours of 10pm and 6am unless it is a serious situation.

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings will always be sent as close to the issue time as possible - regardless of the hour.

Severe Weather Warnings issued by the BoM during late evening or pre-dawn may be delayed until morning if there is a long lead-in time before the severe weather is expected.

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