“Test” Tornado Warning Accidentally Sent to Mobile Devices

(Missouri) Many people received a tornado warning alert through their smartphones late Monday morning.

What many people may not have known was the warning was actually a test part of Missouri’s Severe Weather Preparedness Week put on by the National Weather Service (NWS).

In a social media post by the NWS in St. Louis, “There has been confusion this morning with our test of the tornado warning system as part of the tornado drill. There was a malfunction between the NWS & the Weather Emergency Alert (WEA) system. The test warning should have not activated WEA. We apologize for the inconvenience.”

According to the NWS, warnings that appear on phones comes from a FEMA program, known at WEA.

The message content is not controlled by the NWS.

NWS officials say they will work with FEMA to ensure this doesn’t happen in the future.