What does your town's weather alert sound like?

Happyinwonerland

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jul 1, 2014
Messages
2,662
Growing up in a medium-large sized town in north Alabama, our weather alarm was a loud, classic tornado siren. It was scary and you knew it meant to take shelter. I only remember hearing it when there was a tornado warning.

Here in a bigger city in Kentucky, the system sounds like Big Ben. Like a synthesized, computerized keyboard playing Big Ben. They do this alert for everything, from high pollen, to snow, to freezing temps, and tornadoes. It makes it hard to know if the alarm is"It's cold, wear a coat and don't sleep outside" or "Take cover and say a prayer".Since I am so programmed to think all weather alerts relate to a tornado, hearing that chime gets me a little nervius when it goes off.

Is this the norm most places, or does your town have a different system?
 
Growing up in a medium-large sized town in north Alabama, our weather alarm was a loud, classic tornado siren. It was scary and you knew it meant to take shelter. I only remember hearing it when there was a tornado warning.

Here in a bigger city in Kentucky, the system sounds like Big Ben. Like a synthesized, computerized keyboard playing Big Ben. They do this alert for everything, from high pollen, to snow, to freezing temps, and tornadoes. It makes it hard to know if the alarm is"It's cold, wear a coat and don't sleep outside" or "Take cover and say a prayer".Since I am so programmed to think all weather alerts relate to a tornado, hearing that chime gets me a little nervius when it goes off.

Is this the norm most places, or does your town have a different system?

I live in a small town in Illinois, and the only alert we get is the classic tornado siren. It's tested the first Tuesday of every month. Our town was hit by 2 tornados within 2 years, so that first Tuesday of the month we will get several reminders that the testing will be happening so we can warn our still nervous kids, and ourselves. I still get anxious when I forget it's the first Tuesday and I hear the sirens going off, even in the middle of winter (our first tornado hit mid November, so I know they happen any time).

My weather app on my phone used to alert me to more, pollen, wind, snow, ice, etc. The night of the second tornado, my phone kept going off with flood warnings - it drove me crazy because it is the same sound as the tornado warning, so I understand where you're coming from.
 
Like a giant air horn.

For some unknown reason, they do their tests at noon on a Saturday. The only reason I know this is because it's location right next to a soccer field that my son's used to play at - nobody wanted the noon games. :o
 

I have lived in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and Maine. As far as I know, none of these places had weather alerts.
 
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We have lightening detection systems at the parks in town, but that’s it. They go off if there’s lightening nearby, so they’ll stop the baseball/football/soccer game that’s going on. Just sounds like a loud alarm.
 
Ours sounds like ‘Hey y’all! Have you looked outside lately?’ Seriously, we don’t have one.
 
I have lived in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and Maine. As far as I know, none of these places had weather alerts.

I used to live in Mass. near Westover Air Force Base , and I seem to recall a siren of some sort going off for hurricane or tornado warnings a few times.

I live in Western MD now, and as far as I know, there are no weather alerts. At least none in the 17 1/2 years I have lived here
 
We don't really have weather emergency alerts here. We get the National Weather service alerts on the radio and our phones occasionally but there isn't any kind of alarm for our town.
 
I have lived in 8 different towns in 5 states and have never had a weather alarm in my town.
 
It sounds like the weatherman on channel 5.

Our town does have flashing blue lights on the signal poles. They let everyone know no street parking. Head to the town lots & off the street for plowing.
 
I grew up in Iowa and Missouri. We had the classic tornado siren. I live in Orlando now. We have nothing except the weather radio.
 
I'm in South Florida... if we even have one, I've never heard it.
 
We have nuclear plant sirens which are tested precisely at noon the first Wednesday of every month. They're the typical air-raid type sirens & are very loud.

They've never gone off for just a tornado though, & we've had tornadoes come through.

If the sirens *did* go off & it wasn't noon on a first Wednesday, I'd be panicking & preparing for nuclear fallout.

If they ever have to test the sirens on a day other than a first Wednesday at noon, it's well-publicized.

Some towns have hurricane evacuation routes; our town has a nuclear disaster evacuation route.
 
No place I've lived in the mid-Atlantic area has one. When we lived in Illinois, there was one that sounded like an air raid siren. We did hear it go off a couple of times.
 
Living in MI, I grew up with tornado sirens, but I've literally never heard one go off because of a tornado. Only the monthly testing.
 
Here in the desert our "alarm" system is when you touch the hot handle on your car door and let out a yelp.

Seriously, our cell phone gives us an alert when there's an incoming dust storm or other weather-related problem. If you're out in public when we get an alert, several other people simultaneously grab for their cell phones to see what's happening -- it's rather amusing.
 
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