The German Weather Service (DWD) wants to improve the comprehensibility of its warning system as a consequence of the experiences during the flood disaster in West Germany a year ago.
As the DWD announced in Offenbach on Wednesday, the number of warning categories should be reduced and the probability of its predictions occurring should be communicated more clearly.
In addition, the concrete threatening effects of the storm should be emphasized even more clearly in the warnings.
According to the official German weather service, its warnings about the flooding caused by extremely heavy rainfall in parts of Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia were accurate and available early.
At that time, however, they were “not yet optimally used,” explained Renate Hagedorn, the DWD board member responsible for weather forecasting.
