Possible tornado provoked 1st test of smartphone weather warnings in province

A new Canada-wide system for alerting people to emergencies was put to the test in New Brunswick for the first time by Environment Canada when a tornado warning Tuesday setsmartphonesvibrating all over Victoria County.

Through Alert Ready, Environment Canada issued thetornado warning at 3:37 p.m.,and residents with smartphones immediately got the message.

Jill Maetea, meteorologist with Environment Canada, confirmed the alert was sent for the first time in New Brunswick by the weather service.

She said the decision to send it was prompted by the urgency and rareness of a tornado.

"A tornado is a highly rare weather event and it's also an event that public should be alerted about as soon as possible," said Maetea.

Alert Ready to send emergency messages to smartphones

6 years ago

Duration 1:46

Alert Ready, the national emergency system that already sends alerts to television and radio, will soon be sending them to mobile phones too.

She said because so much of New Brunswick is sparsely populated, sometornadoes are not reported because they aren'tnoticed.

Maetea said no one reported any sightings of a tornado in the Grand Falls area, where the meteorologists were most concerned a tornado might develop.

When they issued the alert, they said they were tracking a severe thunderstorm that could produce a tornado and cautioned residents to be careful.

The alert came as a surprise

Angela Geneau, who lives in the Grand Falls area, was in disbelief when her phone made a strange vibration and alerted her to the tornado.

"I was in my office and my phone starts to buzz and I was like 'Whoa, what's going on?''' said Geneau. "It was a different kind of vibration and it said we have a tornado warning."

She didn't see any signs of a tornado. Geneau wasn't the only who was startled by the new alert system.

Judy Deleavey said her phone made a weirdsound and she immediatelychecked what the noise was.

"I said, 'I've never heard that noise before,' so I went and checked it and it came on the TV."

Deleavey said she saw no signs of a tornado. The rain came down very heavy for 20 minutes and then the sun came out.

How Alert Ready works

The Alert-Ready system, which has been delivering warnings to television, radio and online for years, expanded to includesmartphoneswith anLTEconnection in April 2018 and was first tested in Canada inMay.

In the event of an emergency, an alert, drafted by a senior official within the government, issent out to smartphones via cellphone towers in a designated area.

The service is offered on 17 different cellphone providers, and smartphone users cannot opt out of the service.