Met Service Agencies Blame Each Other For False Tornado Alert

A war of words has broken out between Croatian meteorologist service Crometeo and the nation’s state service, The Croatian Meteorological and Hydrological Service (DHMZ), after a weather prediction was off the money.

Last week media in Croatia was dominated with headlines of a potential damaging ‘storm to beat all storms’ which would bring hail and tornadoes to much of the country. After the resulting forecast never lived up to its billing in the media, both weather agencies have been accusing each other of spreading ‘unnecessary panic’. The Director of DHMZ Ivan Cacic has accused Crometeo of creating the fuss in the media, which lead Crometeo to firing the accusation of the wrong forecast back at the state service. Crometeo want a public apology from DHMZ.

The height of the panic occurred on Friday afternoon when motorists in the capital Zagreb were encouraged to park their cars in public garages around the city to avoid damage the storm could inflict. No announcement of the change in forecast was made public and now both are squabbling who is to blame.