{"id":854743,"date":"2026-08-12T00:10:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T00:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/854743\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T00:10:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T00:10:09","slug":"environment-canada-launches-new-storm-warning-system-to-address-alert-fatigue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/854743\/","title":{"rendered":"Environment Canada launches new storm warning system to address \u2018alert fatigue\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

A new thunderstorm and tornado warning warning system will target alerts specifically to the area forecasters think will be hit.Christinne Muschi\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Environment Canada launched a new, more targeted thunderstorm and tornado warning system this week to address \u201calert fatigue\u201d and cut down on the number of weather alerts Canadians get on their phones.<\/p>\n

The new system will target alerts specifically to the area forecasters think will be hit, rather than issue a broad warning across a large area.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlert fatigue is something that we know everyone has,\u201d said Giselle Dookhie, a warning preparedness meteorologist at Environment and Climate Change Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not something we want the public [to take lightly] when they see a warning for a severe thunderstorm or tornado warning. We want them to know that it\u2019s likely to impact them, and they should protect themselves and others and their property from harm.\u201d<\/p>\n

Forecasters will now have the ability to draw a perimeter around the area they think is most likely to be affected and then push an alert to phones in that area.<\/p>\n

The changes will only apply to severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings. While they took effect Tuesday, Environment Canada is planning an official launch for Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Whither the weather balloons? U.S. changes leave Canada with less notice of storms, experts say<\/a><\/p>\n

Dookhie says the new system will also generate more specific information within push alerts than just general area and weather threat information.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will provide a list of locations in nearby areas that could be impacted, and that list will be ordered by time of arrival and display up to 10 different locations,\u201d Dookhie said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it will still contain all of the relevant information in terms of what the main weather hazards are, like wind, hail, heavy rain. And also the safety information that we have in our warnings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other alerts like heat warnings and thunderstorm watches will still have broad alert areas.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to take some learning with the system, because not everyone is going to be able to migrate at the same time, to displaying the polygon warnings,\u201d Dookhie said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo Environment Canada is making both zone-based warnings on polygon warning data available.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: A new thunderstorm and tornado warning warning system will target alerts specifically to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":854744,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,66,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-854743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-science","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=854743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/854744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=854743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=854743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=854743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}