The system is training me to ignore it already. I’m in SF and we had a flash flood emergency alert. I never heard of or saw any floods. I could believe a street or two might have had a few inches of water at most. But honestly I’d bet against even that.
There was a ton of flooding on flat roads and highways during the last week+ long storm session. I saw several lanes impassable on 101, and several spots in SF where a car could easily have gotten flooded.
All the alerts I got were basically "please don't drive" and not "you're gonna die!", which I think is totally reasonable.
I've gotten the warning and my street is perfectly fine... and then I look at social media and cars on the street are half-submerged just 20 blocks away.
You might not even be aware of elevation differences when they're gradual.
It is also unclear to me how someone is supposed to differentiate a real emergency from an "Extreme threat/danger" and what authority they should look to, besides their common sense.
I guess people can go on twitter and read some random posts.
Flash flood alerts are one of the few that I don't get annoyed about seeing. A big rain up in the mountains can result in a huge chunk of water somewhere downstream a couple of hours later. This significant displacement of time and space between cause and effect warrants caution and notification.
This is similar to the "severe weather alert" I just received on my phone when the temperature will range from 47' to 67' F (8' to 19' C) in Los Angeles today, December 5, with clear, sunny skies and no noticeable winds.
Of course, when I tap on the notification and open the app, I see that it's actually driven by an air quality alert because the AQI will be 112 (which isn't even that high.)
Come on guys - the dictionary defines weather as, "the state of the atmosphere with respect to heat or cold, wetness or dryness, calm or storm, clearness or cloudiness."
And then there’s this tsunami alert today.