[EAS] NWS: Comments about impact-based for Flash Flood Warnings

[Sean Donelan]

NWS is soliciting comments about changing Flash Flood Warnings.

https://www.weather.gov/media/notification/pns19-13ibw_flashfloods.pdf

https://nws.weather.gov/products/PDD/PDD_IBWforFlashFloods_2019.pdf

"a. Format and Science Basis - NWS offices issue more than 12,000 FFWs 
each year for events with a range of impacts on lives and livelihoods. 
User perception is that NWS over-alerts flash flood warnings. FEMA has 
also noted a large number of complaints about WEA alerts for FFWs during 
overnight periods with perceived little impact. With this change, NWS is 
aiming to improve the public response to flash flood warnings by providing 
easily readable information and by issuing WEA alerts only for flash flood 
events that require immediate life-saving action."

The proposed changes are only for the NWS teletype warning format.  It 
doesn't include changes for EAS or IPAWS yet. Adding the machine-readable 
tags to the teletext message would later support downstream alert systems, 
such as EAS and IPAWS, to discriminate between different severity of flash 
flood warnings.