Why no tornado sirens in Florida?

[floridafam]

I and Dh grew up in Michigan and we had tornado sirens everywhere.

I haven't seen any of them or heard any of them here in Florida.

Why?

 

[BamaBaloo]

Same reason cities and states don't own snowplows in the south. Florida (especially south of the panhandle) doesn't get enough tornados to justify the cost. The ones they do get are (normally) the smaller tornados that spin out of hurricanes, and in that case everyone is already on their toes anyway. The type of storms that happened last night are about as rare as snowstorms in Alabama.

Of course, this is just my opinion. Locals please correct me if I am wrong.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I don't know.

I was thinking the same thing this morning--but the only thing I could gather was that they just aren't a common enough occurance to justify the warnings.

Same deal of why The NE probably doesn't focus each and every hurricane season with too much hurricane prep---it is a possible force of nature, but not frequent enough to be too caught up with it.

The last set of storms of this variety was 1998.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Same reason cities and states don't own snowplows in the south. Florida (especially south of the panhandle) doesn't get enough tornados to justify the cost. The ones they do get are (normally) the smaller tornados that spin out of hurricanes, and in that case everyone is already on their toes anyway. The type of storms that happened last night are about as rare as snowstorms in Alabama.

Of course, this is just my opinion. Locals please correct me if I am wrong.

They compared this to the storms of 1998...so yes it is a rare occurance of this nature.

We do get smaller storms occasionally that yield tornados (they did on Christmas day in fact, but destruction was limited to one or two neighborhoods).

 

[mickeyboat]

I read an article this morning which said there were sirens in some more urban localities, but none for the more rural, spread out areas. This makes sense, too.

Where would those people have gone, anyway? They only had 8-15 minutes of warning, and most of them were asleep at the time.

Tragic.

Denae

 

[RitaZ.]

Tornadoes are not a common occurrence in FL, that's probably the reason.

 

[VirtuallyMe]

Like someone already said I'm sure it has something to do with frequency of occurance

they just upgraded our "Shelter in place" sirens to handle other major emergencies like a tornado.

FYI Shelter in place sirens are because our area has lots of chemical plants (make PVC plastics) and oil refining plants- if there is a leak and the wind blows the right way the poisons released could kill people. So we have shelter in place sirens that go off each Monday at noon as a test. The kids do drills in school where they run inside and all doors and windows are shut, all ac/heaters turned off until an all clear is given.

We don't get them often and luckily I live in a part of town that will likely never be affected but the areas closer to the plants have to shelter in place a few times a year, usually as a precaution

but for my area the last time a tornado came was probably almost 10 years ago. An area just north of us will get them a little more often but still not like other areas do...

 

[Towncrier]

I guess that's what prompted Governor Crist to say that everyone in Florida should have a weather alert radio. That way the burden of cost is directly on the homeowners and the state of Florida doesn't have to pony up any cash.

Good question, though. I guess I never realized that EVERYONE doesn't have tornado warning sirens. I've lived a very sheltered life.

 

[LBAK]

I never knew there were tornado sirens until I went to college at the University of Kentucky. Here on Long Island we have volunteer firemen so when there's a fire or emergency the sirens go off and so does the 6:00 whistle. It's an everyday occurence here. Now for college, I'm sitting in my dorm and the sirens go off and I continue working and people are freaking out all over. I had no clue what was going on and they started yelling at me to get in the basement. I'm thinking for a fire siren? They had to actually explain to me what was going on. Let me tell you, scared the pants off of me. I'll never forget that as long as I live. Of course my friends still make fun of me to this day.

 

[RitaZ.]

Good question, though. I guess I never realized that EVERYONE doesn't have tornado warning sirens.

Why would tornado sirens be necessary in an area where they don't typically occur?

For instance, our parks have lightning sirens. I don't know exactly how they work. I live near a park and I have heard the sirens go off when it isn't even lightning in the area. Anyway, I don't expect every city in this country to have them. We have them because FL is the lightning capital in the US.

 

[PoohnPglet]

We had them where I grew up, which was on the very edge of Tornado Alley. But, ours were called Civil Defense sirens and they were used anytime the local emergency people needed to get everyones attention quickly, which was usually for a tornado or severe storm.
(Now that I think about it more, I think they were called Air Raid sirens and were initially put in during the Cold War.)

 

[jillyjoey]

Areas of Florida may now be getting them.

That is what happened here. We rec'd lots of money to make sure we had enough sirens after our county was devastated. I live 25 minutes from town but there is a siren about 300 ft from my house. (tornado shelter 15 ft from my back door)

 

[froglady]

Actually, Florida ranks #4 in frequency of tornadoes nationally, so they really aren't that rare. As mentioned, they can occur during hurricanes, but also during severe thunderstorms. The one that hit near me was associated with a thunderstorm. We have very frequent tornado watches; unfortunately, so frequently that people don't pay a lot of attention to them.

 

[JR6ooo4]

the sirens were used as civil defense alerts when I was a young-in, back in the 60's and 70's. If the siren went off you were to go inside and listen for information.

It is not a bad idea to have a system. They could have warned all of boston of the light-brites!!! hehehehe


MIkeeee

 

[Towncrier]

Why would tornado sirens be necessary in an area where they don't typically occur?

Because our government officials do some really boneheaded things.

It's easy for me to forget that everyone isn't from NE Ohio. Too many birthdays, I guess. But I understand your point. It just took a big hammer to drive the point home (in my case).

 

[PoohnPglet]

Actually, Florida ranks #4 in frequency of tornadoes nationally, so they really aren't that rare. As mentioned, they can occur during hurricanes, but also during severe thunderstorms. The one that hit near me was associated with a thunderstorm. We have very frequent tornado watches; unfortunately, so frequently that people don't pay a lot of attention to them.

You know, I was just thinking that for a place where tornadoes are supposedly rare, we sure are supposed to be watching for them and getting warned about them a lot!

 

[LisaR]

I also grew up in Michigan and have wondered why we don't have sirens down here in FL. For those of you that say FL doesn't get many tornadoes, this map shows that some parts of FL (including the area I live in) get more storms then the area I lived in MI that had sirens.

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/img/climate/research/tornado/tornadoalley500.jpg

 

[jillyjoey]

This may be a stupid question -- but since we are thinking about moving to FLA someday. Do you all have tornado shelters in the ground? Are shelters as common down there as they are here? Are they now building houses with saferooms? I guess when you are on vacation you never think about these things occurring in FLA like they do back home.

 

[wdw4us2]

Florida may be ranked 4th for tornados, but we're much higher up for lightning strikes - I believe we're 1st in the nation.

It wasn't until 3 years ago that the government mandated lightning alarms on school athletic fields and county owned fields. I don't think there is enough money for the tornado alarms. Also, in the past two instances of major tornado strikes in Florida I think the areas that were hit were rural and an alarm would not have reached the effected areas.

 

[kandeebunny]

This may be a stupid question -- but since we are thinking about moving to FLA someday. Do you all have tornado shelters in the ground? Are shelters as common down there as they are here? Are they now building houses with saferooms? I guess when you are on vacation you never think about these things occurring in FLA like they do back home.

I'm in south florida (ft lauderdale) and we have NO tornado shelters.

I grew up in NH and we didn't have tornados like...ever lol. That said I lived next to a Nuke plant so we had sirens, but they were used for blizzards/hurricanes/evacuations/meltdowns (when you have 5 seconds to get out thats REALLY going to help) Down here...nothing that I've seen.

I want to get a weather alert radio...you know the kind that sits there and only turns on and "speaks" when there is an alert. Irony is I can't FIND one...I can find battery operated ones, or ones that while running will get alerts.