this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2026
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Casual UK

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Not sure I have the time or equipment to start a wildfire myself.

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[–] DrCake@lemmy.world 8 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I’m English but live in Wales so got the alert in Welsh. Panicking trying to google translate Welsh to English thinking World War 3 might have kicked off.

Only to find it’s just “been a bit dry mate, maybe don’t start any fires”. Well there goes my weekend plans.

[–] SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml 3 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

I don't know what alert level they used, but they shouldn't have used anything higher than alert level 112C for this

[–] Setiyeti93@lemmy.ca 6 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I hope no ones burner phone or secret phone has been discovered.

[–] paks@feddit.uk 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Yep. Had to go find the history in settings to actually read it.

[–] fakeman_pretendname@feddit.uk 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)

That is a really useful tip, thanks.

On my Samsung Android phone it was under:

Settings > safety and emergency > wireless emergency alerts > emergency alert history

[–] asnaf@piefed.social 1 points 6 days ago

Depending on your flavor of Android, you can also see it in the standard notification history without having to go into any settings or menus. There's a little history icon on the bottom left of Pixel phone notification shade, for example.

[–] Diddlydee@feddit.uk 3 points 6 days ago

I got it earlier, but it's just popped up again this minute.

[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 2 points 6 days ago

Yes. This happens all.the.time in Canada with our pathetically bad and non-granular system. A child is late coming home from his dad's house and we know about it 3000 km away all snug in our beds. I half expect to see

"Country-wide alert: whoever is stealing my muffin from the break-room fridge is gonna get in trouble"

..or something equally local.

[–] Flax_vert@feddit.uk 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I'm in Northern Ireland, so didn't get the alert. But had BBC Radio 4 on at the time and the newsreader got it, so I was confused why my phone was making an alert sound and not showing a message.

[–] SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml 0 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Haha interesting

Also fascinating that NI seemingly has its own independent system. I wonder if it's triggered from the Stormont?

[–] Flax_vert@feddit.uk 1 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

We don't have an independent system. The UK's emergency alert system supports local areas. For example, during a storm in January, Cornwall got an alert, but not London. Plymouth once got its own alert.

However, during storm Éowyn, the first ministers for Northern Ireland appeared to request it, announcing it in an emergency press conference in the afternoon, alert hitting in the evening. It began with:

Issued by the UK and NI Governments

There's also alerts prefixed by just the "Issued by the UK Government", "Issued by the Environment Agency", and the Plymouth one was "Issued by Plymouth City Council" .

So I think local authorities can issue them using the national system. There's probably a civil servant in Whitehall it has to pass through first. Don't want some angry councillor giving off about dog poo ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

This fella here has a pretty decent explanation for a short video

https://youtu.be/eOuiMEZ5vng

URGENT MESSAGE FROM THE GOVERNMENT: Bit hot innit?