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The Bureau of Meteorology has issued an apology for any confusion that may have arisen from a recent test alert. In an official statement, they expressed regret over the incident, stating, “The Bureau acknowledges and apologizes for any confusion that this test may have caused.”
The statement further clarified that the test warnings were mistakenly sent to the BOM Weather app for several locations before being promptly canceled after issuance.
These erroneous alerts occurred during a scheduled transition to a new tsunami early warning system.
App users received notifications about a “tsunami threat to the marine environment” affecting the coasts of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, and Tasmania.
Importantly, the alerts were clearly marked as “TEST” within the application to indicate their non-authentic nature.
The warning was live about 11.42am, as seen in screenshots shared with 9news.com.au.
The alert was later cancelled.
“There is NO tsunami threat to Australia,” the bureau said.
Testing is important for the bureau and partners to plan for real tsunami threats, the bureau added.
It works in tandem with the Joint Australian Tsunami Warning Centre (JATWC) which operates 24 hours a day to detect, monitor and warn of any tsunami threat to Australia.