In Europe, public weather warnings are issued by national meteorological services. Their presentation is partly harmonised through
EUMETNET's European Multi-service Meteorological Awareness (EMMA) initiative and the
MeteoAlarm portal. MeteoAlarm aggregates official national warnings and displays them using shared pictograms and a four-level colour scale (green, yellow, orange, red) to support consistent cross-border interpretation. The underlying warning criteria and meteorological thresholds remain national and therefore vary by climate and local vulnerability.
Sweden The
Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute uses terminology based on other countries. Yellow level means forecast of weather that can mean some risks and disturbances to transport and other parts of society. Amber level is for weather that can mean danger, damage, and larger disturbances. Red level is for weather that can mean big danger, serious damage, and major disturbances. This can refer to many types of weather related events such as wind, flooding, snow, forest fires, etc. Sweden does not have as severe weather as some other countries, so red events in Sweden would normally not cause large international headlines. Until 2021 the SMHI its own warning level terminology, Class 1, 2 and 3, fairly much corresponding to Yellow, Amber and Red.
United Kingdom The
Met Office, the
United Kingdom's national weather service, does not issue separate weather warnings and watches, but has an analogous system of flash warnings and advance warnings that serve the same general role of weather warnings and weather watches, respectively. Other official meteorological departments may use similar systems but use different terms. The Met Office and other weather services have three colour coded warning levels: •
Yellow: Be aware. Possible travel delays, or the disruption of your day-to-day activities. •
Amber: Be prepared. Could cause road and rail closures, interruption to power, and the potential risk to life and property. •
Red: Take action. Widespread damage, travel and power disruption, and risk to life are likely. Avoid dangerous areas. Thunderstorm warnings both Severe and Watch are also issued as of 2018. ==United States==