IT-Alert test scheduled in Rome and Lazio on Thursday called off.

The testing of Italy's new public alert system in the Lazio region around Rome on Thursday 21 September has been postponed to a later date due to expected bad weather.

The last-minute decision to call off the IT-Alert test was announced on Wednesday afternoon by the Lazio region with a brief statement on its website in light of the thunderstorms expected across Italy on Thursday.

The Lazio region said the decision to cancel the testing of the new service, which had been scheduled for midday on Thursday, was to avoid a scenario in which civil protection authorities were engaged in dealing with potential emergency situations due to the weather.

È rinviato a data da destinarsi il test di #ITalert nella Regione Lazio previsto per giovedì #21settembre a causa della contemporanea allerta gialla per temporali prevista su tutto il territorio

I dettagli nella news https://t.co/njgCu5Fnrx pic.twitter.com/97duyN1Mu8

— Regione Lazio (@RegioneLazio) September 20, 2023

IT-Alert, which has been tested in other regions in recent weeks, has been set up to warn of "a major emergency or an imminent or ongoing catastrophic event" and offer "timely information to potentially affected people, with the aim of reducing individual and collective exposure to danger."

The ongoing testing of the system around Italy is designed to fine-tune the service which alerts people via text message to their cellphones.

The new date for testing the system in Lazio has not been announced yet.