It appears they are still around under certain circumstances. I ran into one myself while editing a question. Not exactly the same thing you had but similar.
I wonder if this has to do with some of the changes that have happened recently:
Stack Exchange Inc has recently moved their data centers to another location in NYC. (There was a blog post somewhere out there on this, but I can't find it now, links would be helpful)
Or perhaps because the older notifications are longer and provide more information.
Update
I've seen this several times since I posted this, but forgot to mention it here.
I have a feeling these are supposed to be here, because once when I was using a test account it asked me to add a password, and kept asking me, so I don't think this is a bug necessarily..