Tornado sirens and how kids today are soft
- Thread starter CloneGuy8
- Start date
Eh, I get the "boy who cried wolf" aspect of tornado sirens but you can't just not sound them when a confirmed tornado is on the ground.
I won’t criticize them for going off when there is a tornado. I will say though my initial reaction last night when I heard them was why the heck are they going off not get to a safe place. That’s the problem.
I think that was a matter of surprise. The tornado warning in the county came down with the tornado, it was not expected (hence the little, weak tornado). That storm wasn't expected to be able to produce a tornado at all.
Generally when these things happen, the first thing I do I flip on KCCI or WHO to compare their weather coverage with my actual surroundings. Last night in north Ankeny, they matched -- sirens went off, and shortly after, my area became very still and rain nearly stopped for a little while. Eerie stuff. At the same time, KCCI was saying a tornado was spotted in Johnston, headed towards west Ankeny.
While that was some of the issue it was also because for the past how many years they’ve turned them on for nothing. It also didn’t help that the storm had already moved through where I live. If they want to keep doing them for everything they need a new siren for when it is an immediate shelter situation like last night.
It’s absolutely dangerous how they have desensitized people to them. Growing up when we heard them it was a get to the basement and figure out what’s happening. Now it’s a WTF are they running them for casual reaction.
That’s a you problem. 50, 60, 70 mph winds are nothing to sneeze at, especially if you happen to be outside. It’s one of those “does it really inconvenience you that much if some nice weather unaware lady out walking her dog gets a siren when a severe thunderstorm warning with high winds is coming so she doesn’t get hit on the head by a shutter flying off someone’s house or a plastic chair taking her legs out?” Such complainers and whiners some people have become in the last 10-12 years.
So a couple of things on the warning stuff.
1.Remember they are OUTDOOR warning sirens intended only to warn those that are outside. 15+ years ago they were 1 of 3 or 4 ways to get informed on tornadoes. Now days there are countless apps that will do that.
2.Technology is advancing faster than governments are willing to keep up on siren warning technology.
1.Remember they are OUTDOOR warning sirens intended only to warn those that are outside. 15+ years ago they were 1 of 3 or 4 ways to get informed on tornadoes. Now days there are countless apps that will do that.
2.Technology is advancing faster than governments are willing to keep up on siren warning technology.
I didn't know there was a difference between outdoor and get to the basement sirens, never heard of that. What is the difference?
So taking this one more step, isn’t our football intro actually hurting us? Shouldn’t we NOT warn them of the coming destruction? Wouldn’t a Surprise attack be more effective?
This isn't targeted at you, but this is the biggest BS answer that comes out. Tornado sirens have always been shelter alerts for people up until they started turning them on for everything. You want to know what the outdoor warning sirens are? The outdoor warning sirens are the clouds in the sky. People who are outside don't need the warning so much. The people who need the warning are the people who are inside minding their business not paying attention to what is going on outside because they are inside.
What is the "everything" they get turned on for? My recent memory experiences with sirens across DSM are that they've only really come on for 2 reasons, either extremely high winds (a good reason to shelter) or an imminent tornado threat (another good reason to shelter)... isn't that their intended job? There may be something to be said about range from threat point (like sirens going off in Altoona for a northeast-bound tornado in Johnston, that seems like a bit much), but still.
In my experience they have been setting them off for severe thunderstorm warnings. They will do this for stuff that I wouldn't really consider that severe too. The point being I'm afraid of the day when an actual tornado really comes through. We were out of state when the one hit the Bondurant area a couple of years ago, but that is what I'm scared of. We need warnings for imminent threats to people that need to get to their safe location.
We are not adequately doing that. Heck my parents who live closer to the supposed tornado yesterday and they didn't even know about it until I called afterwards. The storm location likely went over or really close to them.
I've wondered about if a home crowd did a thing where instead of going ballistic while the opponent has the ball, randomly at times go completely silent for a moment before a snap to throw them off.
Have you ever looked at thunderstorm and tornado damage footage or pictures or gone over storm reports?
One time in the student section, I drunkenly attempted to convince a set of attractive co-eds to show their top halves to a group of Sooners tending to a hurt player on our sideline back at that time to distract them and not have them score again. I failed. On both accounts.
There were a lot of different siren tones and patterns that you used to have to know back in the civil defense siren days.
