An emergency tsunami warning alert that went out over the air was just a test.
“It was definitely a test,” Joel Curtis, the warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Juneau, said. “The message that we got here at the forecast office was pretty clear about it being a test. And the format of the message was in its usual test form.”
There is no Tsunami Warning currently for Alaska and/or the West Coast. We issued a routine communications test message at 7am AKST that has been misinterpreted. We are investigating this issue. Repeat: There is NO Tsunami Warning
— NWS Tsunami Alerts (@NWS_NTWC) May 11, 2018
According to the National Tsunami Warning Center in Alaska, a routine communications test message went out at 7 a.m. Friday, but it “has been misinterpreted.”
“We’re thoroughly investigating as to how the test message got out and was interpreted as a warning on radio and TV,” Curtis said.
Curtis says the investigation into how the alert happened will likely take a few days.