4 Minute Warning

4 Minute Warning

Radiohead

Thom has said that In Rainbows is “about the fucking panic of realizing you’re going to die!” Keeping with that theme, “4 Minute Warning” describes a vague apocalyptic scenario that the narrator is trapped in the middle of.

The four-minute warning was a public alert system conceived by the British Government during the Cold War and operated between 1953 and 1992. The name derived from the approximate length of time from the point at which a Soviet nuclear missile attack against the United Kingdom could be confirmed and the impact of those missiles on their targets. The population was to be notified by means of air raid sirens, television and radio, and urged to seek cover immediately.