Articles
Disaster science, historical analysis, country risk profiles and preparedness — written and reviewed under our editorial policy.
Lifted, Cancelled, Updated or Expired: How a Warning Ends
A warning can be updated, cancelled or simply run out of time, and a cancellation can still say yellow and Moderate. Read the verb before th…
WND Editorial Team · Sep 17, 2026 · 5 min read
Why Some Warnings Sit in the Middle of a Country on the Map
Many agencies publish a warning with a place name and a code but no coordinates. The map has to put the pin somewhere; the area name is the …
WND Editorial Team · Sep 17, 2026 · 5 min read
Extreme but Not Yet: Severity, Urgency and Certainty in Warnings
A warning marked Extreme may be about tomorrow, and only likely. Three fields in every official alert say how bad, how soon and how sure.…
WND Editorial Team · Sep 15, 2026 · 5 min read
China's Blue, Yellow, Orange and Red Weather Warnings Explained
In China red is Level I, the most serious. The numbers count down, not up, and Hong Kong runs a separate amber, red and black system of its …
WND Editorial Team · Sep 15, 2026 · 5 min read
Tornado Warning and Flood Warning at Once: Which One Wins
One says go to the lowest floor. The other says get to higher ground. When the same storm issues both, the answer is not to pick a favourite…
WND Editorial Team · Sep 9, 2026 · 5 min read
Lightning: When to Go Inside and When It Is Safe to Come Out
Thunder is the instruction. If you can hear it, the storm can already reach you - and the half hour after it stops is when people get caught…
WND Editorial Team · Sep 9, 2026 · 5 min read
Why Hawaii Gets Hurricane Warnings but Rarely Direct Hits
The islands sit in their own hurricane basin with its own season and its own forecast office. Storms reach them often. Landfalls are the rar…
WND Editorial Team · Sep 8, 2026 · 5 min read
Hurricane Warning or Tropical Storm Warning: What Changes
Two islands, two different warnings, one storm. The difference is not how worried to be. It is how much time you have left, and for what.…
WND Editorial Team · Sep 8, 2026 · 6 min read
What a Satellite Fire Detection Is, and What It Is Not
A count of 991 detections is not a count of 991 fires. It is a count of hot pixels, and the difference changes how you read every fire map.…
WND Editorial Team · Aug 30, 2026 · 5 min read
What Makes a Thunderstorm Severe? The Actual Threshold
It is a specific measurement, not a description of how bad a storm looks. And rainfall, the thing that most often kills people, is not part …
WND Editorial Team · Aug 30, 2026 · 5 min read
Evacuation Warning or Evacuation Order: What Each Means
They are not two words for the same thing. One says get ready and stay reachable. The other says the time to decide has passed, and go now.…
WND Editorial Team · Aug 30, 2026 · 6 min read
What a 100-Year Flood Actually Means
It is not a flood that happens once a century, and two of them in three years is not evidence that anything is broken. It is a 1% chance in …
WND Editorial Team · Aug 25, 2026 · 6 min read