WWTBAM Bored

I hope Kay sees this or that she's already in her basement.

I'm on my way! With any luck, she'll let me stay in her secret room....

Jim Cantore wrote:I'm on my way! With any luck, she'll let me stay in her secret room....

I don't know which is worse-a Jim Cantore watch or a tornado watch. Does Cantore demand scritches?

I hope Kay will check in when she can to let us know she is okay. Stay safe!!

sunflower wrote:I hope Kay will check in when she can to let us know she is okay. Stay safe!!

I hope she avoids trailer parks.

Sirens started going off about 7:30 this morning I think. They went off at least 3 different times between
then and 8:30. They sound like they're in my back yard.So much for sleeping in on a Saturday!
We're fine, though. Not even much wind at my house, just a lot of rain, which we needed.

Thanks for caring, though.

Glad to hear that all is well. Thanks for letting us know.

I am intrigued about the sirens, which I wonder if we have any.

Who makes them holler, and pays for them?

Ritterskoop wrote:I am intrigued about the sirens, which I wonder if we have any.

Who makes them holler, and pays for them?

In a much earlier day in Colorado, volunteer fire depts. used sirens, primarily to call out firefighters, and secondarily to warn residents that there would soon be fire trucks careering down streets and highways to the emergency.

Fire districts gradually took over the function because of the secure tax base they afforded. Similarly, I'll bet there are tornado districts in GA.

Glad nothing bad showed up at your house Kay. The rain pounding on our roof woke me up several times during the night last night. After Katrina knocked those two oak trees onto the house, we replaced our old shingle roof with a metal one. Now it gets really loud when a severe storm drops a lot of rain. We are a few hours west of you so you might have had some of that system blow thru the Plains.

There is a siren near my parents' house, to call the VFD. And they have a special one at the nuclear power plant on the lake.

But I have never heard one inside the big city.

Sirens are a way of life in Hawai'i. They are all around the islands. On the first working day of every month, they go off at 11 am to test the system. There are two signals, one short, one long. One is tidal wave, one is air raid.

My Mom says the most scared she ever was happened during a tsunami warning where the sirens were sounding and there were low flying aircraft announing that everyone should go to higher ground. Luckily, there was a very small surge.

We have no warning sirens here in CT. But not too many tornadoes and no tsunamis.

Here's what I found on warning systems in the U.S:

While the tones used vary in some locations, the most common tone, the "Alert" is widely used by municipalities to warn citizens of impending extremely severe weather, particularly tornadoes. The sound of the "Alert" is a steady continuous note. In towns by the ocean, the "Alert" may also be used to warn of a tsunami.


The "Hi-Lo" fire siren tone can sometimes be used by local volunteer fire departments to alert firefighters of an emergency. This tone is also used in some cities to warn of the potential for flash flooding or a tornado warning or a Hazardous Materials spill. The "Hi-Lo" tone is a continuous alternating higher pitched and lower pitched sound, similar to police sirens in Europe.

We have sirens -- very loud sirens -- in Norman. They are installed and maintained by the city. In addition to sounding them when a funnel cloud is spotted in the air or on the ground by civil defense volunteers anywhere within the county, they are tested at noon every Friday, year-round, unless the weather is bad. When visitors arrive on Friday mornings, they are likely to receive the following advice:

"You may hear a siren at noon today. If the sun is shining, the city merely is testing the tornado sirens, and there is no weather-related danger. If you hear it when the sky is dark or if it's raining, it's not a test. Take cover in a small indoor room on the lowest floor of whatever structure you may be inside."

That's what we tell visitors to do. Those who live here use the siren as a signal to turn on a television station with weather radar to find out exactly where rotations have been spotted and what direction in which they are moving. If they are miles away and not headed directly toward us, life goes on as normal.

They test ours at noon on Wednesdays.

Our car alarms go off when there is an earthquake. Not much warning.

ulysses5019 wrote:Our car alarms go off when there is an earthquake. Not much warning.

My car alarm goes off when the Camaro is struck by lightning, whether I'm in it or not.

They upgraded our wanring sirens to those voice operated ones about 6 years ago. So we get a computerized voice that screams at us all to "TAKE COVER" if a tornado warning is issued. The police can also get on there and make broadcasts is neccesary, though the only time I can recall them doing that is during the big power outage from the July 2006 storm that left most of the city dark for several days. They had to put us on a boil order, and figured the only way to announce it to the residents was to blare it out over the warning system....

They have been testing it at 10 AM on the first Tuesday of the month forever. I know better than to try to go to bed early that day....

lb13

christie1111 wrote:Sirens are a way of life in Hawai'i. They are all around the islands. On the first working day of every month, they go off at 11 am to test the system. There are two signals, one short, one long. One is tidal wave, one is air raid.

Air raid?

Hawai'i isn't going to let Pearl Harbor happen again, eh?

kayrharris wrote:The "Hi-Lo" fire siren tone can sometimes be used by local volunteer fire departments to alert firefighters of an emergency. This tone is also used in some cities to warn of the potential for flash flooding or a tornado warning or a Hazardous Materials spill. The "Hi-Lo" tone is a continuous alternating higher pitched and lower pitched sound, similar to police sirens in Europe.[/i]

We had this until a couple of years ago, and every time there was a fire they'd sound a series of tones and you could count them and figure out where the fire was based on the fire department's chart. I guess cell phones probably eliminated the need for that time of alert for the volunteer firefighters. I don't miss it, it was loud and I live near a fire station.

littlebeast13 wrote:They upgraded our wanring sirens to those voice operated ones about 6 years ago. So we get a computerized voice that screams at us all to "TAKE COVER" if a tornado warning is issued. The police can also get on there and make broadcasts is neccesary, though the only time I can recall them doing that is during the big power outage from the July 2006 storm that left most of the city dark for several days. They had to put us on a boil order, and figured the only way to announce it to the residents was to blare it out over the warning system....

They have been testing it at 10 AM on the first Tuesday of the month forever. I know better than to try to go to bed early that day....

lb13

Ah, music to my ears..... not!

lb13