A brief panic gripped parts of eastern Australia on Wednesday after the national weather bureau sent a tsunami warning to thousands of residents. People along the New South Wales and Queensland coast received the Bureau of Meteorology warning, sent shortly after 11.30am, reading: “tsunami warning” and giving the location of the user. App users were informed that a tsunami was approaching, caused by an 8.2 magnitude earthquake off the west coast of New Zealand. People living inland and as far west as Canberra – 125km from the closest beach – received the message. Moments later, a second message followed, reading: “cancelled tsunami warning”. A notice in the app told users the previous message had been a test.
The Warning's Impact
The intervening moments were enough to send some app users into a state of alarm or confusion. “Holy crap! Just a got a tsunami warning”, one X user wrote. “Nothing quite like a casual tsunami warning to get the heat rate up on a Wednesday @BOM_NSW pic.twitter.com/pG1oFQbsJg,” wrote another.
The Test's Justification
The bureau had issued notice of the test via social media, but app users said they were not notified that a test run was planned. A bureau spokesperson said the test posts were issued as part of a transition to new tsunami early warning system software. “There is NO tsunami threat to Australia,” they said. “The Bureau acknowledges and apologises for any confusion that this test may have caused. Testing is important to help the Bureau and partners prepare and plan for real tsunami threats.” The bureau is part of the Joint Australian Tsunami Warning Centre (JATWC), which detects, monitors, verifies and warns of any tsunami threats to the coastline of Australia and its offshore territories. The spokesperson said the bureau “provides the most accurate tsunami warning information for Australia”.
The Aftermath of the Test
The Bureau of Meteorology sparked panic and a lot of confusion on Wednesday morning when it briefly issued a tsunami warning for parts of Australia’s east coast. The tsunami warning was issued on the BoM app at 11.32am warning of a potential tsunami threat to Tasmania, Victoria, NSW and Queensland after an 8.2-magnitude earthquake struck near New Zealand. The only problem was there was no earthquake and the tsunami warning was just a test. Users of the BoM app as far inland as Canberra and the Blue Mountains also received the warning. Despite the warning message being marked as a test, many alarmed users took to social media to express their confusion at the alert warning of a tsunami on the east coast of Australia from noon. The bureau clarified the situation in a post on X about half an hour after issuing the test. “The Bureau of Meteorology issued test verification posts on the BOM App between 11am-12pm AEST on Wednesday 25 September 2024 as part of the transition to the new tsunami early warning system software. There is no tsunami threat to Australia,’’ it said.
On Wednesday afternoon the BoM issued a statement apologising for the confusion, saying that testing is important to help the bureau and partners prepare and plan for real tsunami threats. “The bureau acknowledges and apologises for any confusion that this test may have caused,” it said. “The test warnings were sent to the BOM Weather app for various locations. The test warnings were cancelled immediately after they were issued.”
Learning From the Test
The reassuring message came too late for some app users, who were convinced they were in the path of a devastating natural disaster. It was too late for many Aussies who believed the alert was real and criticised the BoM for its failure to include the word “test” in the title. “Nothing quite like a casual tsunami warning to get the heat rate up on a Wednesday,” one user posted. “Hey Bureau of Meteorology. If you’re going to send out ‘TSUNAMI ALERTS’ as a test, maybe include that in the notification title and not just in the message you have to open in the app,” another complained. A second joked: “Just got a warning that a tsunami is hitting in ten minutes – time to tell my boss what I really think.” Still others were amazed that the inland regions of Canberra and the Blue Mountains were included in the test.
