Yesterday, the government sent an emergency alert to around 3 million people in parts of Wales and south-west England.
As Storm Darragh blasts the UK, it was the largest use of the warning system yet.
It was sent to the mobile phones of people in areas covered by the Met Office red weather warning for the storm.
When delivered to devices, the alert made a loud siren-like sound, even if they were set on silent, and lasted for around 10 seconds.
The emergency siren in my hometown sounds just like the opening to REO Speedwagon’s “Ridin’ The Storm Out.” So whenever there’s a tornado warning I don’t know if I should take cover or score a dime bag of Mexican dirt weed and start rocking out.
— Bob Phillips (@BobTheSuit) December 5, 2024
The Met Office issued a rare red warning—the most serious type—for wind earlier on Friday. It is expected to last till 11:00am on Saturday.
But the new emergency siren has not sat well with everyone.
A lot of people who received a 'siren' took to the social media site Reddit to vent their frustrations.
One said: "I honestly thought I was going to read a message saying about long range missiles and to take cover. Gave me a heart attack."
Another commented: "Wait until one of these goes off when you're on a packed train, or in a crowded theatre. Hundreds of phones all sounding at once."
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Someone else added: "I was just on the train when it happened. It wasn't all at once. Still lots of phones going off, but all slightly different times with seconds to minutes in between. This actually made it more annoying, because when you thought they were done more went off".
Whilst another said: "Was actually in a crowded theatre (just before the performance) when the alerts all started to go off! Not all at the same time, but a handful every few minutes. A member of the theatre staff ended up coming out, explaining what it was and asking everyone to actually turn off their phones and not just have them on silent for the performance.
"Then it all started up again in the interval as people switched their phones back on and the rest of the audience got their alerts."
