Watches and Warnings - Do You Know The Difference?
You've heard and seen weather warnings, er.. watches - or were they advisories?
When it comes to emergency management and your safety, words have meaning. That's why the Los Angeles Fire Department suggests you become familiar with the terms used to identify severe weather conditions.
Advisories, Watches and Warnings are not synonymous!
Watch:
A watch is used when the risk of a hazardous weather or hydrologic event has increased significantly, but its occurrence, location, and/or timing is still uncertain. It is intended to provide enough lead time so that those who need to set their plans in motion can do so.
Advisory:
An advisory highlights special weather conditions that are less serious than a warning. They are for events that may cause significant inconvenience, and if caution is not exercised, could lead to situations that threaten life and/or property.
Warning:
A warning is issued when a hazardous weather or hydrologic event is occurring, is imminent, or has a very high probability of occurring. A warning is used for conditions posing a threat to life or property.
By remembering to look or listen for such key words, you can take appropriate action to keep yourself and those you love safe from foreseeable danger.
To learn more about weather in our region, visit the National Weather Service Los Angeles/Oxnard Weather Forecast Office at:
...and, remember to tune to NOAA Weather Radio, commercial radio or television stations for information whenever severe weather threatens!
Submitted by Brian Humphrey, Spokesman
Los Angeles Fire Department
Tags: LA, Los Angeles, LAFD, Los Angeles Fire Department
2 comments:
In view of the numerous carbon monoxide fatalities in the Seattle-Tacoma area following the December 14 windstorm and Dec.14-25 power outages, perhaps a posting on the dangers of running generators inside dwellings or garages, as well as using charcoal grills to cook inside during an extended power outage, would be in order. One of the issues here involved language and cultural barriers which prevented some victims from understanding English language news reports.
Mr. Livingston,
Thanks for visiting the Los Angeles Fire Department blog, and for sharing an important thought.
We do surmise that cultural and language issues can become a concern to emergency public information in most areas of the globe - but are especially acute in such global destinations as Seattle and Los Angeles.
In regards to recent events...
The men and women of the LAFD were closely monitoring the windstorm in Washington and Oregon, and remain impressed by the ingenuity and tenacity of public safety professionals across the Northwest.
With strong winds soon to arrive in our region, we hope that we won't have to put too many of those lessons to use!
Though the automatic 'translation' service by Google offered on this blog (see the national flags in the upper right corner) has been popular, we know that it is frightfully inexact, especially for emergency public information.
Please know that our office has had immense success in working daily with ethnic media in more than a dozen of the most common languages spoken in Southern California, but will admit we'd love to do more. 100% reach may not be a reasonable goal, but it is our ideal aim.
As for generator and combustion fume safety, we do have one of the former in the works, and hope to have the latter crossover from our mainstream media outreach to the blog in the coming weeks.
Again, thanks for visiting the LAFD blog and taking the time to comment.
We hope to use much of the information we gleaned from Northwest responders in our future outreach, and welcome your continued input.
Respectfully Yours in Safety and Service,
Brian Humphrey
Firefighter/Specialist
Public Service Officer
Los Angeles Fire Department
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