COMMUNICATING SEVERE WEATHER EVENTS: JANUARY 2017 EPISODE ON THE EAST OF

HOW IT IS GENERATED AND DISTRIBUTED THE INFORMATION ON SEVERE WEATHER EVENTS

27/09/2017 ANA CASALS CARRO 1 Flow of information of SEVERE WEATHER PHENOMENA and the IMPACTS resulted in EXTREME EPISODES oriented to different needs

27/09/2017 ANA CASALS CARRO 2 . Spain is a mountainous country, dominated by high plateaus and mountain ranges. There are many climate zones, according to As a result, Spain is now composed of 17 autonomous geographical situation and orographic conditions: mediterranean, communities and two autonomous cities with varying oceanic, semi-arid, alpine, continental, desert, subtropical. degrees of autonomy. Autonomous communities are integrated by provinces (50), and they are integrated by 27/09/2017 ANA CASALS CARRO 3 municipalities SPANISH CIVIL PROTECTION SYSTEM • Three layers to deal with emergencies: national, regional and local • Deconcentrating of national civil protection in 17 autonomous civil protections.

27/09/2017 ANA CASALS CARRO 4 27/09/2017 ANA CASALS CARRO 5 SPANISH ADVERSE WEATHER WARNINGS SYSTEM:METEOALERTA

Warning areas and thresholds have been agreed with Civil Protection authorities

27/09/2017 ANA CASALS CARRO 6 PHENOMENA : rainfall in 1 and 12 hours, snowfall, winds, storms, maximum and minimum extreme temperatures, coastal phenomena (wind and sea), dust in suspension, avalanches, Cantabrian galernas, rissagas (sudden rise in the sea level) in the Balearic Islands and fog. Heat waves, cold waves and tropical storms are issued as special warnings. THRESHOLDS : the "rarity" of the phenomenon, and the “adversity” for the population has been taken into account. LEVELS: Green : no weather hazard. Yellow : Potentially dangerous meteorological phenomena for specific activities or locations of high vulnerability such as a large conurbation. Orange : unusual meteorological phenomena dangerous for usual activities Red : unusual meteorological phenomena of exceptional intensity and with a very high risk level for the population. Occasionally, the coincidence of certain atmospheric variables , their intensity , duration and extension , may justify the issuance of "SPECIAL WARNINGS" that, without interfering with the normal warnings of the Plan, will make a call to the citizens to pay special attention to the meteorological evolution.

27/09/2017 ANA CASALS CARRO 7 COMMUNICATING TO THE MEDIA • Early communication. • Communicating the situation with the consequences: press reléase spread by all means • Special warnings explained and spread by all means Flow of information of SEVERE WEATHER PHENOMENA and the IMPACTS resulted in EXTREME EPISODES oriented to different needs

27/09/2017 ANA CASALS CARRO 9 AEMET SEVERE WEATHER WARNING SYSTEM A national plan + dedicated forecasting deployed resources.

THE NATIONAL SYSTEM

27/09/2017 ANA CASALS CARRO 10 27/09/2017 ANA CASALS CARRO 11 Nombre Province Altitude mm Nombre Province Altitude mm Tárbena Alicante 587 692.0 Carcaixent Valencia 21 157.2 REPORT ON THE MET Benimantell Alicante 615 451.2 Bellús Valencia 140 151.0 SITUATION FROM 17 TO Callosa d'en Sarrià Alicante 99 412.8 Jávea/Xàbia Alicante 15 149.6 Murla Alicante 260 375.0 Castellón 238 149.2 23 JANUARY 2017 Confrides Alicante 630 371.2 Manises Valencia 58 145.8 . Situation exceptional and Orba Alicante 160 347.6 Alcudia de Veo Castellón 313 145.4 Altea Alicante 99 343.2 Valencia Valencia 11 145.3 historical, from a meteorological Guadalest Alicante 377 340.2 Castellón 679 144.8 Pinet Valencia 389 300.4 Castellón 35 140.4 and climatological point of view, as Millena Alicante 670 290.0 El Puig Valencia 19 137.8 much in the intensity and L'Atzúbia Alicante 260 289.0 Alzira Valencia 18 137.0 Miramar (Playa) Valencia 2 244.0 Almenara Castellón 14 136.8 duration, as in number of Alfondeguilla Castellón 354 240.6 Vallada Valencia 893 135.2 provinces and communities Gata de Gorgos Alicante 79 237.5 Massamagrell Valencia 14 134.3 Pego Alicante 60 231.4 Chera Valencia 480 132.4 affected and to the conjunction of Barx Valencia 340 223.0 Aeropuerto de Manises Valencia 56 131.5 simultaneous adverse weather Xàbia (Montgó) Alicante 224 209.9 Buñol Valencia 585 130.6 La Vall de Gallinera Alicante 754 205.2 Millares Valencia 217 129.8 events (snow, rain, wind and Castellón 586 200.8 Chiva Valencia 301 128.4 Benidorm Alicante 62 198.4 Ontinyent Valencia 350 127.6 coastal phenomena). Mediterranean Muro d'Alcoi Alicante 332 197.2 Polinyà de Xúquer Valencia 12 127.4 moist air entering the land, leading Miramar Valencia 12 191.0 Castellón 325 126.7 Castelló Castellón 140 182.2 Xàtiva Valencia 88 126.6 to intense and persistent rainfall, La Torre de les Maçanes Alicante 835 179.4 La Pobla de Benifassa Castellón 1168 125.4 favored by the presence of a warm Castellón () Castellón 43 176.2 Castellón 601 120.8 Vila-Real Castellón 44 171.0 Bicorp Valencia 305 120.0 sea water anomaly in the western L'Alcora Castellón 309 166.2 Torrevieja Alicante 9 114.6 Onda Castellón 187 164.8 Sagunt Valencia 24 109.0 Mediterranean. The episode was Alcalá de Xivert Castellón 166 164.2 Aer. Alicante/Elche Alicante 43 104.7 immediately preceded by a cold Oliva Valencia 5 161.1 Castellón 176 104.0 27/09/2017 Alcoi ANA CASALS CARRO Alicante 530 159.0 Castellón12 432 104.0 wave Gandia Valencia 20 157.8 Morella Castellón 998 102.2 27/09/2017 ANA CASALS CARRO 13 27/09/2017 ANA CASALS CARRO 14

27/09/2017 ANA CASALS CARRO 18

WEATHER WARNINGS 19/01/2017 WEATHER WARNINGS 20/01/2017

27/09/2017 ANA CASALS CARRO 20 27/09/2017 ANA CASALS CARRO 21 IMPACTS

• ThePROVINCE generic HUESCA impacts NAVARRA that RIOJA occured BURGOS were: TERUEL VALENCIA ALICANTE MURCIA MALAGA DEAD PEOBLE 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 INJURED 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

ISOLATED 43 1283 1 19 0 0 0 0 0 PEOPLE VEHICLES VILLAGE VILLAGES ROADS CUT YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES TRAIN CUT YES NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO SCHOOLS CLOSED YES NO NO NO NO YES NO YES NO MARITIM TRAFFIC ------YES NO NO NO CLOSED COMMUNICATING TO THE MEDIA • Early communication. • Communicating the situation with the consequences: press reléase spread by all means • Special warnings explained and spread by all means LESSONS LEARNT

• With social networks we can send our message to hundreds of thousands of citizens, • STORIFY :, where we gathered all the tweets and retweets of a situation. The way in which we were communicating this episode can be seen in: https://storify.com/AEMET_CValencia/ola-de-frio-temporal-maritimo-temporal-de-viento-d • The information given about the adversity of the situation in the previous days, increasing the strength of the message as we were approaching it, is somewhat in tune with the probabilistic forecast concept. • As the onset of adversity approaches: provide clear and forceful messages that make the people see the risks of the situation. • The accuracy in the weather forecasts of those days, the way to communicate them through social networks, and the gradation in the intensity of the message, was not only recognized by citizens through twitter thanks, but also by the authorities. They expressly acknowledge the prestige of our institution THANK-YOU MESSAGES RECEIVED THROUGH SOCIAL NETWORKS • LESSONS LEARNT: IMPORTANCE OF COMMUNICATION THROUGH SOCIAL NETWORKS • The great impact of social networks for the communication of extreme weather is demonstrate through the progressive increasing on the activity of the AEMET networks. • Anticipation, follow-up and the final balance report are highly valued by society. • This is noted through the interaction with the published tweets, the rapid increase of followers and the huge increase of the web page number of visitors.(From 3,5 M per day to 7,6 in 3 years) • The impressions of AEMET's twitter accounts are "triggered" when a storm is occurring. • The immediacy with which the information, monitoring and data are provided through social networks and through the web is incomparable with the extreme difficulty to communicate emergencies in real-time from the usual means used by an official body of the administration. Thank you very much for your atención! Pleased to address your questions!