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The green screen weather map that showed a tornado over Toledo for 30 seconds
I saw a clip from a local news station in Ohio, WTVG maybe, where the weather graphics glitched out and put a fake tornado warning over the whole city. It was up for half a minute before they cut to commercial, but I bet some folks packed their basements. Has anyone else caught a broadcast glitch that looked real enough to scare you?
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wren_mitchell13d ago
I read somewhere that emergency alert systems like that actually have to be tested regularly, and sometimes the software used by smaller stations has weird bugs that haven't been updated in years. Apparently a glitch like that in the graphics card can override the actual warning data and just paste a huge red box over whatever city is on screen. It's scary because people trust that stuff, and even a 30 second mistake can cause real panic, especially with tornado season being so active lately. There was also a case a few years back in Oklahoma where a similar glitch showed a false tornado track and people actually drove into the storm trying to escape it. The FCC fined that station, I think, but it makes you wonder how many close calls go unnoticed. Maybe stations need a second check before anything goes live, because a fake warning is almost worse than no warning at all.
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