Coordination of Warning and Response Messages

Ensuring that warning information is consistent across different departments is important, especially when each has a joint, but differentiated responsibility for issuing warnings. The China Meteorological Administration (CMA), for example, issues fourteen categories of warning signals: tropical cyclones, heavy rain, heavy snow, cold surges, strong wind, dust, heat waves, droughts, thunder and lightning, hail, frost, heavy fog, haze, icy roads. In addition, the Shanghai Meteorological Service (SMS) issues ozone warnings and it is in the process of developing health warnings for specific weather-sensitive diseases.

The CMA is responsible for creating weather disaster prevention planning for multi-agency implementation. For example, emergency response categories (I, II, and III) have been developed for flood and typhoon prevention based on weather warning categories (blue, yellow, orange and red).

This coordinated approach ensures that warnings have the authority of both the meteorological service and the agencies responsible for the particular sector affected. Similarly, it is important that warnings are consistent between countries that share common borders or are part of an economic community with considerable cross border exchange of people, goods and services. This has been successfully developed in Europe through an initiative called meteoalarm (www.meteoalarm.eu is the website that integrates all important severe weather information originating from the official National Public Weather Services across a large number of European countries. The participating countries are Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Spain, Finland, France, Greece, Croatia, Hungary, Ireland, Iceland, Italy, Luxemburg, Latvia, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Sweden, Slovenia, Slovakia, United Kingdom).

Meteoalarm is aimed at anyone travelling through Europe. Pictograms and colour-coded maps of Europe show at a glance where the weather might be, or soon become, dangerous. Gales, torrential rain, snow and ice, thunder and lightening, fog, and extreme temperatures are all indicated as well as weather conditions that could lead to increased risk, such as storm surges and high waves, forest fires, and avalanches. The level of risk is colour coded.

Green	Is your country colored green? Then there is nothing to worry about.
Yellow	Yellow means potential danger. The weather is unlikely to be extreme but care is called for in activities that are dependent on the weather. Keep an eye on the information.
Orange	Orange means danger. There is severe weather that may cause damage or accidents. Keep in mind that the weather brings risks. Be careful and keep abreast of the latest developments in the weather. Take head of all advice given by the authorities.
Red	Red means great danger from extremely severe weather. Major damage and accidents are likely. In many cases with threat to life and limb, over a wide area. Be extremely careful, pay constant attention to bulletins and obey the instructions and advice given by the authorities under all circumstances. Keep in mind that exceptional measures may be taken.

Developing a common weather awareness is a challenge for many countries; however the experience with Meteoalarm is generally positive linking the underlying national warning information into a regional framework. At this stage, Meteoalarm focuses mostly on meteorological phenomena, rather than issuing flood warnings for example.

 

8. Reading and Speaking. Read and translate the text.Make at least one question to each paragraph of the text. Why is hurricane Katrina reported as one of the strongest storms to hit the U.S. coast? Give your ideas. Give the summary of reasons and consequences of its occurrence.