Implementation of a new colour-coded Early Warning System
The Trinidad and Tobago Meteorological Service implemented a new, risk-based system, effective Monday, April 16th, 2018.
The new Early Warning System (EWS) complies with the World Meteorological Organization’s international standards for effective early warnings. The structure of the warnings conforms to the format of the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP), an international standard for emergency alerting and public warning. The TTMS will no longer be issuing Bulletins.
Early Warning Messages will now be issued as ‘Public Warning Messages’, which will take the form of ‘Alerts’, ‘Watches’ or ‘Warnings’ based on the amount of time between the current time and the expected time of impact. Alerts will have the longest lead time, while Warnings will have the shortest lead time.
Early Warning Messages will be issued for hydro-meteorological hazards such as Severe Weather, Thundershowers, Flooding, Dry Spells/Droughts, Extreme [High] Temperatures, and Hazardous Seas, in addition to already established notifications for Tropical Cyclones (Depressions, Storms, and Hurricanes). These hazards are already continuously monitored by the TTMS.
Public Warning Messages will contain indicators for the urgency (time available to prepare), certainty (probability of occurrence) and severity (intensity of impact). The risk posed to Trinidad and Tobago is determined by combining the certainty and severity of the hazard’s impacts. The risk level will be communicated using a colour scheme of Yellow-Orange-Red to indicate Moderate-High-Very High risk respectively.
Example of a Yellow-level Early Warning Message issued earlier this year for Hazardous Seas
Other features of the CAP compliant messages include: validity time, response type, description of the hazard event, instructions for appropriate response by message recipients and area description.
This new system aims to markedly improve the country’s Early Warning System in order to strengthen resilience, reduce vulnerability and minimize loss and damages associated with adverse weather and climate events.