New Warning Sirens

We all know the sound of a tornado warming siren. That siren that seems to get strong and pull back and do it over and over. But how often do we really listen to it? What’s the real ratio of tornado siren warnings to actual tornados? Well, the sirens probably win.

Because we often hear the warnings more than we see the actual tornado it’s not uncommon for us to not take action when we hear the siren. I know I’m guilty of that. I’ll hear a siren go off and I’ll go ahead and step outside and look around at the storm because I don’t feel the danger in doing so. Our sirens went off so often last year it seemed like our weather service was in a completely different area considering our storms weren’t that damaging. In fact, a lot of people don’t react much to tornado sirens because they aren’t one hundred percent sure that it’s coming. They will wait and look for additional information to really confirm that a tornado is heading towards them.

Now that people are used to the sirens it doesn’t seem like a big deal when they go off. But recently the tornadoes have been horrific. The National Weather Service is actually planning to change the sirens to give more of a scare to people so that they listen and take shelter.

The new sirens aren’t set to release in every state yet; it will mostly be in the states that have recently been hit by the sweep of tornadoes. They are planning to say something about how the damage will be so catastrophic the land will be unrecognizable after the storm is over. The goals of this new warning system are as follows:

- Provide a non-routine warning mechanism that prompts people to take immediate life-saving action in extreme events like strong and violent tornadoes.

- Be impact-based more than phenomenon-based for clarity on risk assessment.

- Be compatible with NWS technological, scientific and operational capabilities.

- Be compatible with external local warning systems and emerging mobile communications technology.

- Be easily understood and calibrated by the public to facilitate decision making.

- Maintain existing "probability of detection" for severe weather events.

- Diminish the perception of false alarms and their impacts on credibility

-These are the kind of warnings that will go out:

Standard Tornado Warning: These warnings are the basic warnings issued by the National Weather Service. These are generally the sirens that are used all across the United States.

Potentially Dangerous Situation (PDS) Tornado Warning: If a PDS Tornado Warning is issued, then it means that the storm has a tornado on the ground that was spotted by a storm chaser or the public. This is the second highest warning that could be issued by the National Weather Service.

Tornado Emergency: In a tornado emergency, a large tornado is on the ground producing a lot of damage and is headed towards a populated city. This is the highest possible warning used to alert people. It has already been used in some cities as of last year when super cell storms were occurring.

These warnings are going to be launched in St. Louis, Kansas City, Topeka, Wichita, and Springfield, Missouri. If they prove to be more effective than the previous warning system then it will be expanded to the entire nation within the following years.