Los extreme weather events increasingly common in all corners of the world as a consequence of global warming have forced governments to implement warning systems for its citizens with the aim of warning them of possible risks and minimizing the impact of torrential rains or, as in the case of this Thursday in Barcelona, hurricane winds.
These are the different recipes that countries in Europe, the US and China apply:
The storm Nil These days it is also hitting a large part of French territory, which for a few weeks has experienced one storm after another. This Thursday, 900,000 homes were left without electricity, forcing the electricity distributor to mobilize 3,000 people on the ground, double what was initially planned, to deal with the damage caused by the storm, classified as “exceptional.”
Although the population had already been alerted days before of Nil’s arrival, through SMS messages for those who reside in the apartments in red and orange alertIn addition to updated information in the media, the authorities have not been able to prevent several injuries and one death.
France is used to storms. Paris is usually the victim of intense rains during the winter that in many cases force close parks or reduce service public transport. Normandy o Brittany They often experience storms accompanied by significant high gusts of wind that cause incidents in the electricity supply in many areas. In all these situations, the Government always warns the population in a news conferencewhere the urgent measuresand hours before the storm arrives, affected citizens receive a message on their phones —FR Alert— with some slogans.
The FR-Alert is a system that was launched nationwide in June 2022, and is launched in circumstances of adverse weather conditions, chemical or industrial accidents or serious threatslike a terrorist attack. It is the prefects of the departments, the Minister of the Interior or the president, who are in charge of launching this alert if they consider it necessary.
In Italiathe weather alert (weather alert) works through the official Civil Protection system (Civil defense), which coordinates forecasts, warnings and emergencies together with the regions and municipalities. The alerts are based on data from the meteorological services of the Italian Air Force, as well as institutes linked to the Ministry of the Environment, the European Union and other scientific centers.
The alerts, which are communicated to the population especially through the radiothe televisionlas official websites of the institutions involved and, in the most extreme situations, through the system IT-alert by SMS, they are classified by color: green, yellow, orange and redthe first being the mildest and the last the most serious. They may include, among others, alerts for landslides, floods, extreme heat, volcanic activity, earthquakes, avalanches, and rain or snowfall particularly intense.
However, over the years, there have occasionally been diatribes about these systems for multiple reasons, including alleged delays y lack of clarity in communicating the emergency to the population. This was what happened with the L’Aquila earthquake in 2009, which ended with a trial against those responsible (later acquitted) of course failed in correct communication of real danger what that earthquake implied. Another case is that of the most recent floods in central and northern Italy (Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany, Liguria), due to criticism focusing again on an alleged opacity in adequately communicating the real danger that the population was facing.
Germany was applied to optimize the protocols of action in extreme weather situations following the devastating flood recorded in the Ahr valley 2021. 130 people died in that Rhineland region, plus another 50 in neighboring areas. Simply, the local authority did not respond quickly enough to the alarm launched by the German Meteorological Service (DWD) in the face of a devastating flood, which in a matter of hours destroyed everything.
While responsibilities were being investigated, the Ministry of the Interior established new security protocols between the DWD, the civil protection technical service (THW) – with some 800,000 volunteers throughout the country – and municipal, regional and national authorities. The call was instituted Alarm Dayand nationwide drill aimed at ensuring that 96% of the population receives accurate alerts through their mobilea system of mermaids, radio y television. The issuer of these alerts continues to be the DWD, which monitors and updates its information in real time.
The alert levels are identified by color – yellow, for moderate danger, to rise to orange, red and purple, for extreme cases -, whether for rain or snow precipitation, storms, winds, frost or the dreaded freezing rain, which makes highways, roads, streets, railways and airports impassable. In a winter like the current one, in which Berlin has had minimum temperatures of up to -10 degrees for weeks, the alarms can be daily. Citizens can follow them through the DWD, in addition to relevant media information. Alerts in the form of shrill beeps via mobile phones are broadcast in emergency situations. high or extreme risk.
The meteorological agency of United Kingdom (Met Office) is responsible for managing the alerts due to meteorological phenomena. These are divided into three colors —yellow, amber y rojo—, depending on the severity of the phenomenon and its potential impact on people and infrastructure. They are usually issued up to seven days in advance and are constantly updated as forecasts change.
The most common methods for reporting weather alerts are through the media and of the social networksin addition to the page web and the mobile application of the Met Office. In the most extreme cases, however, authorities use a mobile phone alert system (Emergency Alerts) that warns the population of serious weather phenomena, in addition to other possible threats.
Since its launch in March 2023Emergency Alerts has been used in at least five occasions due to inclement weather. One of them was due to the arrival of the storm Eowyn, in January 2025, which left gusts of up to 180 kilometers per hour already close to one million homes without electricity in the United Kingdom and Ireland. On that occasion, the alert reached 4.5 million devices, the highest number recorded so far.
The most recent use of Emergency Alerts was last January due to the passage of Storm Goretti, which left strong gusts of wind in Cornwall, in the extreme southwest of England. Still, authorities insist that this system should only be used in real emergencies and when there is a immediate risk to people’s lives.
USA It is subject to extreme climatic phenomena of all kinds, due to the enormous climatic diversity of the country: from hurricanes and tornadoes to floods and heavy snowfallspassing through heat waves and extreme heat desert conditions.
He National Weather Service It is responsible for sending warnings to the population and does so through several means at the same time: mobile phone, radio, television and, in some areas, sirens. Thus, if there is one that fails, whether due to coverage problems, internet or power outages, it arrives by another means. When the risk is high, on-screen text messages are sent to those within a specific area, such as in Spain.
The gear that allows these messages to be disseminated in a coordinated manner is managed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which connects authorities with different public notification channels.
To reach the population through radio and television, the emergency alert system may disrupt official programming and instructions, such as evacuations or self-protection measures. In addition, there is a radio station that broadcasts information and warnings 24 hours a day. In rural areas, it is considered a “safety network” when connectivity is limited, something very characteristic in the vast center of the country.
Prior preparation is part of the American model. In educational and work centers, they are promoted emergency plans y drills with procedures for indoor sheltering, evacuation and coordination with emergency services.
China enjoy a complex alert system, refined and in constant review against extreme weather events. Natural disasters such as floods, storms, earthquakes and fires share the procedure with epidemics, food security crisis and industrial or transportation accidents. The plan distinguishes the prior alertswhere a color system operates (red, orange, yellow and blue) depending on the imminence and seriousness of the threat. Once the disaster has occurred, the response protocoldetermined by severity and also ordered in four degrees, which will dictate who is in charge: The central government, the provincial, the municipal or the counties. The delimitation of powers in a system as centralized as the Chinese one speeds up the reaction, avoids overlapping actions and identifies without margin of error those who failed in their duty.
China also has one of the most sophisticated warning systems in the world against earthquakes. The Government got to work in 2009 in response to the 8-degree earthquake that a year earlier had left almost 90,000 dead in the central province of Sichuan and the system was established throughout the national territory in 2018. It has 33 centers and almost 20,000 stations that allow the first vibrations to be detected and immediate alert messages sent through radio, television and mobile phones. The speed It is key: an alert in just three seconds can reduce deaths by 14%; if it is 10 seconds, by 39%, and if it is 20 seconds, by 63%.
China is one of the countries most affected by extreme phenomena associated with global warming. They were always common typhoons and the floods in the south of the country in the season of monsoon but in recent years meteorological authorities have warned of its increased severity and frequency.
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