Tornado warnings risk being ignored if issued too broadly, Manitobans say

Phones buzzed repeatedly across southern Manitoba with tornado alerts Tuesday night, even though the threat was far away for many who got the frequent alerts.

Some people said in social media posts they received upwards of 20 alerts over the course of the evening.

One tornado was confirmed in the Ste. Anne area, southeast of Winnipeg. Environment and Climate Change Canada said it is investigating whether any other tornadoes developed in the region.

Tyler Samagalski, who was at a bar in East Selkirk Tuesday night, says he and other patrons eventually ignored the repeated warning alerts on their cellphones, because a look outside showed nothing resembling a tornado was approaching.

“Everybody’s phone kept going off every 10, 15 minutes with more warnings, and everybody in the bar was just swiping them away at this point,” he said.

The alerts warned of tornadoes in the “mobile coverage area,” which means all devices connected to a cellphone tower anywhere in the affected area received the alert.

That means somebody living in Winnipeg could get a warning about a possible tornado around Niverville, more than 30 kilometres away, based on proximity to a cellphone tower, said Justin Oertel, a forecaster who created the Weather Centre of Manitoba.

“It’s a major flaw in the system that we’ve noticed.”

Targeted system coming: Environment Canada

Environment Canada said in a statement to CBC News an investigation is underway to better understand why some people might have been sent the same alerts multiple times.

While the weather agency’s statement did not reference any future changes to the warning system, the organization has indicated a more targeted warning system for thunderstorms and tornadoes is on the way.

The agency is currently offering a private four-hour course on “convective alert modernization.” An online description of that course says “polygon-based workflows will change the way severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings are issued in Canada.”

Oertel said that’s the same type of warning system used in the United States, where people are only notified if they’re in a storm’s path.

The change is desperately needed, he said, because Canadians are tiring of warnings that oversell the danger.

The concern is that if a tornado did hit a major urban centre like Winnipeg or Brandon, the warnings wouldn’t be taken seriously, “because of the amount of warnings that they’ve received, and yet haven’t seen the severe weather that’s supposed to be attached to these warnings,” Oertel said.

For some, Tuesday’s tornado warnings brought an unnecessary fear, East Selkirk’s Samagalski said.

“They’re thinking that there’s really a tornado happening right now, somewhere outside their house.”

He said worried family and friends, who know he closely follows weather radar on his phone, were asking him for advice.

“I said, ‘you guys are fine. There’s nothing even near you at all.'”

Jason Emmers, who also lives in East Selkirk, said he got around 20 tornado warning notifications Tuesday night.

While he’d rather get too many alerts than none at all, he also believes a more targeted solution is needed.

“I worry that people that get tons and tons of notifications [on their phone] are either in panic mode, or they’re not going to … respond to them because they’re annoyed at how many are coming,” Emmers said.

He was in the Selkirk area Tuesday and started getting alerts at 6:30 p.m.

It took another three hours for his household to get a tailored warning — an automated phone call from the Rural Municipality of St. Clements, their home municipality.

But his wife didn’t hear the phone calls — by that time, she had silenced the phone to avoid frightening their kids, Emmers said.

Others on social media also said they turned off their ringers.

Emmers said he’s especially worried about children with anxiety, who heard constant reminders of a potential emergency on Tuesday.

He wishes the alerts would incorporate more specific details about a tornado’s whereabouts.

“It would be nice to know — where are these sightings? Where are these warnings?”