[EAS] AR, MO, KS Tornado alert that wasn't

[IPAWS]

NWS released the following tweet:

"There are no active tornado warnings. People in several Midwestern states received a Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) today for a tornado warning. WEA was unintentionally activated during a test. We have identified the cause and resolved the issue. We apologize for the confusion."

NWS does not activate EAS via IPAWS so the CAP message from NWS did not appear on the IPAWS EAS Atom Feed. 

NWS recently launched their new CAP Handler software that creates CAP messages for distribution via IPAWS and other consumers of CAP messages. I'm told that earlier versions properly trapped official test messages (i.e. VTEC messages beginning with "T.")  but that test message block was apparently not active in the final production version. I'm told that the software was patched shortly after the error was detected today. Thankfully this occurred a on good weather day coincident with an the annual announced tornado awareness drill  so little damage was done 

-----Original Message-----

This was our annual coordinated statewide test, in conjunction with severe weather awareness week. The local media was all over it, and the NWS typically gets permission to do a "live code" test (it was sent as a TOR here in Kansas). Here in Topeka, it went out via NOAA Weather Radio and WEA, and some of the local radio/TV stations relayed the EAS. I did not see it come through on iPAWS.

Roy Baum