It just struck me as odd that there was no siren sounds of any type, and to see what I assume is a school bus just casually driving around was a bit unnerving!
I know in Hungary they do have sirens, but won't use it for tornadoes, Amanda.
The people just aren't prepared for it and will come out of their houses, talking and asking to eachother: "where 's the fire?"
Just like in Romania, in rural areas there, most houses have basements for storing food (and wine!
) for the long winters.....
I oftern wonder how the warning systems are in other countries that are not so used to storms like we are here in the US.
In contrast to Poland, where M.Drabowski wrote about, in Hungary and Romania the warning-system is quite good, fully comparable to that in western European countries.
About ten years' ago the Romanian Weatherservice got the most sophisticated doppler-radar system in Europe. Even so modern, that meteorologists didn't know how to use it.....
All that has changed by now and the warning-system is as good as in most european countries. They give coloured warning codes (yellow, orange and red) for the provinces where severe weather is expected. This is often broadcasted on television, radio and internet. Also on internet radar-images are available. On television there are even specific city-related warnings when a severe thunderstorm approaches a large town or city. In fact, this is a sort of equivalence for the severe thunderstorm warning in the USA. And that's something most european countries don't do!
With my meteorological background I can only say that I'm satisfied with the romanian warning-system.
A few minor points (perhaps they read this and could take benefit from it....) are:
-In many cases the severe thunderstorm warnings are valid from 15 hr local time, while they often are starting somewhat earlier and becoming severe between 14 and 15 hr.
-When coloured codes are issued for Romania, they often don't appear on the european severe weather site
www.meteoalarm.eu : Romania is still green! Perhaps this has something to do with the fact that they joined the project this year and the warnings are not fully implemented yet?
In many cases Romania is the "problem child" of Europe (economical, social). I'm glad that this isn't true for the meteorological warning system: I'm sure it saves lives.
