A mistake saw British iPhone users yesterday receive a range of severe weather alerts, one of them citing “severe high temperatures” of 39F (4C). Some of the alerts warned of a “significant threat to life” …

The alerts were sent in the name of the UK Met Office, but reports that it was due to a botched test by an unnamed third-party company.

Notifications warned of severe weather events including high temperatures, snow, ice and rain in different parts of the country on Thursday. The test alerts, issued by a third party aggregator, were not intended to be seen by the public […]

Information contained in the alerts explained that the Met Office test warnings had been issued via a meteorological aggregator that sends weather alerts to a number of places including Apple devices. It is thought that the testing error occurred during this aggregation process.

Some recipients were concerned about the alerts, while were .

“Found that it’s 5° outside and there is a severe weather alert stating “severe high temperatures warning“ ⚠️ from the UK Met Office. Light rain stops in 10 minutes, so I’m off out in my t shirt.”

“Has someone been drinking @themetoffice or is 41F genuinely a high temperature for Cumbria at this time of year?”

“Well apparently SEVERE HIGH TEMPERATURE warning is in place – better get the bikini on!”

The Met Office said that the fault has now been fixed, but as multiple aggregators use the feed further test alerts may be received for a short time.

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