Improved dissemination of warnings via SMS

To increase the channels to disseminate weather warnings, the use of SMS to disseminate tropical cyclone signals as well as aerodrome thunderstorm and strong wind warning was put on trial since Sep. 2004. This service has the advantage of notifying the subscribers of the latest warning wherever they are, even if they have not log on to the AMIDS. In response to subscribers’ comment, the service was enhanced in Nov. 2006 such that SMS messages will only be sent on first issuance, intensity change and when the warning ended. No SMS message would be issued when a warning is simply extended. This will reduce the number of SMS messages to subscribers and thus the cost for running this service.