【Bazaar】

The Bazaarweather site whose slogan is "welcome to superior accuracy" just sent out a false tsunami warning to its users.

On Tuesday morning, the National Weather Service (NWS) sent out what they're calling a routine test message for their tsunami warning system.

But AccuWeather's automated scanning and dissemination of the NWS alert apparently missed the "test" portion of the message. So people on the East Coast, Gulf of Mexico, and in the Caribbean, who receive push alerts from AccuWeather, started their Tuesday with a freaking tsunami warning.

If users clicked on the message, they would see it was a test. But the push alert itself gave no indication that this was anything less than a giant wave coming to wreck multiple states across the U.S.

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AccuWeather quickly communicated on Twitter that the message was a test. They also had some harsh words for the NWS, characterizing the message as something they simply "passed on" to the public. They place the blame with the NWS for not communicating clearly enough in the message sent to AccuWeather, crawled by their coding, that it was a test.

"AccuWeather has the most sophisticated system for passing on NWS tsunami warnings based on a complete computer scan of the codes used by the NWS. While the words "TEST" were in the header, the actual codes read by computers used coding for real warning, indicating it was a real warning," read the statement.

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The NWS also clarified on Twitter and in a statement that there was no tsunami warning in effect. But they seemed to lay the blame at the feet of private companies like AccuWeather, noting that they never intended their test to be sent to the public at all.

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"The test message was released by at least one private sector company as an official Tsunami Warning, resulting in reports of tsunami warnings received via phones and other media across the East Coast, Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean," the NWS told Mashable in a statement. "The test message was not disseminated to the public via any communication channels operated by the National Weather Service. We're currently looking into why the test message was distributed by at least one private sector company, and will provide more information as soon as we have it."

According to the National Weather Service Key West, Tuesday's test was identical to past tests, which are sent out monthly. They have not caused false alerts in the past.

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But given the recent false missile alert in Hawaii, Twitter users expressed outrage and concern that a mistake like this could occur. And they're not just blaming AccuWeather for jumping the gun. Some point out that the fact that the message was a test should have been clearer in the headline, not just the body of the message — including AccuWeather.

"AccuWeather was correct in reading the mistaken NWS codes embedded in the warning," the company said. "The responsibility is on the NWS to properly and consistently code the messages, for only they know if the message is correct or not."

Others didn't miss the fact that today's false message went out on the same day as the congressional hearing on the Hawaii missile blunder.

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But like many public blunders, the potential seriousness of this mistake didn't stop Twitter from roasting the NWS.

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So no need to head for the hills just yet, folks. But before we all start panicking about our next natural disaster, make sure to read the whole alert — not just the headline.