SALT LAKE CITY — The National Weather Service is explaining a scary false alarm sent during the middle of Wednesday’s severe weather.
Just before 6pm, an emergency alert blared on all phones of a flash flood warning for Salt Lake County. But National Weather Service meteorologist Brian McInerney says it was a software glitch on his end, switching between Summit County and Salt Lake.
“I had issued a flash flood advisory for Salt Lake County that went out, and then I had a burn scar flash flood warning (for Tollgate Canyon area of Summit County), and somehow the software put me back to Salt Lake County,” he said.
They then sent a correction tweet, but the Wireless Emergency Alerts system does not send cancellations to phones.
McInerney says warnings were coming very fast for areas all around the state right at the same time because the storms were so sudden and intense.
You can hear his whole interview on Jeff Caplan’s Afternoon News below.