What is the Colour coded weather warning system and why is it adopted?
Colour coded weather warning system is used to alert the public to the predicted severity of weather: cyclones, floods, storms and winds. The colour system ranges from green, which is low risk, to red, which is the highest risk of severe conditions. Kerala floods brought the warning system into headlines.
YELLOW level weather alerts is to notify those who are at risk because of their location and/or activity, and to allow them to take preventative action. YELLOW level weather alerts are for weather conditions that do not pose an immediate threat to the general population, but only to those exposed to risk by nature of their location and/or activity.
ORANGE level weather warnings is for weather conditions which have the capacity to impact significantly on people in the affected areas. The issue of an Orange level weather warning implies that all recipients in the affected areas should prepare themselves in an appropriate way for the anticipated conditions.
RED level severe weather warnings should be a comparatively rare event and implies that recipients take action to protect themselves and/or their properties; this could be by moving their families out of the danger zone temporarily (evacuation), by staying indoors or by other specific actions aimed at mitigating the effects of the weather conditions. It is in the case of a red weather alert that we could see serious disruption to public transport, road closures and school closures.
It is aimed at helping emergency services and local authorities to anticipate potential disruption caused by severe weather. It not only predicts the likelihood of bad weather but also takes into account factors such as river levels and any previous structural damage to buildings in an area.
