Do you know what the different weather warnings mean?
A reminder of how the South African Weather Service categorises weather warnings.
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The South African Weather Service makes a point of warning residents about any forthcoming severe weather anomalies that could potentially be dangerous.
Severe weather is explained as an extreme meteorological event or phenomenon, which presents a real hazard to human life and property and has the potential to cause damage, serious social disruption, or loss of human and animal life.
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The service has separated alerts into three categories:
Special Weather Advisory:
An alert raising awareness, up to five days in advance, to either expected large-scale potential disruptive weather systems that could later lead to specific watches or warnings with time, or to less urgent alerts of uncommon conditions.
Severe Weather Watch:
An alert calling for preparedness to weather hazards that most likely will occur within one to three days and that could lead to disruptive and disastrous conditions.
Severe Weather Warning:
An alert calling for reaction due to a very high certainty of a severe weather hazard that is already occurring or imminent within 24 hours and that could lead to disruptive and disastrous conditions.
The categories are put in place to help residents better prepare and understand weather alerts.
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