BoM app sends ‘tsunami warning’ – but it’s not what it seems

The Bureau of Meteorology issued a test tsunami warning via its app, confusing thousands of Australians who thought there was a real threat.

The test alert was triggered by a fictitious 8.2 magnitude earthquake off the coast of New Zealand and was issued as part of the agency’s transition to new tsunami early warning software.

BoM made it clear that there was no actual tsunami threat to Australia and that the reports were for testing purposes only.

Despite this, Australians as far away as Canberra received a notification from the BOM app saying ‘tsunami warning’, which they had to click on for more information.

In a statement, the weather agency said: ‘The Bureau of Meteorology placed test verification messages on the BOM app between 11am and 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.’

For many Australians it was too late. They believed the alarm was sound and criticised the BOM for not including the word ‘test’ in the title.

“If you’re going to send ‘TSUNAMI NOTIFICATIONS’ as a test, maybe include that in the title of the notification and not just in the message you have to open in the app,” someone said.

A second joked: ‘I just got a warning that a tsunami is coming in ten minutes. Time to tell my boss what I really think.’

Many Australians panicked when the BOM app sent a push notification about a tsunami warning

Much of the east coast was subjected to the fictitious maritime warning

A third called it “very strange” that the test was not given more publicity, given the nature of the warning.

“The **Test** portion of the notification could have been more prominent,” said another recipient.

“I was busy sending alerts to our team in South East Queensland.”

The Bureau of Meteorology sent out a test tsunami warning via its app, confusing thousands of Australians who thought there was a real threat