Anonymous
Post 05/21/2013 20:08     Subject: Re:Does your town have tornado sirens?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Grew up in SE Michigan. Not tornado alley, but plenty of tornado warnings and touchdowns. Growing up, the sirens were tested every week - 1pm on Saturdays. We had tornado drills in school and a couple of warnings during which we had to take cover. Each classroom had a designated place to go in the school and we had to duck-n-cover.

Like a PP, I get alerts from MoCo and also have Weather Bug on my phone.

During the Derecho last summer, as soon as I saw the wind line, I yelled to Dh that we had to grab the kids and head to the basement. He thought I was overreacting. "It's not a tornado warning!" Well, I've seen storms like that before, so I knew, and when we saw all the damage the next day (luckily we only lost power) I told him to never question me about a storm again!



OVERKILL.


OVERKILL.
Anonymous
Post 05/21/2013 20:04     Subject: Re:Does your town have tornado sirens?
Anonymous wrote:Grew up in SE Michigan. Not tornado alley, but plenty of tornado warnings and touchdowns. Growing up, the sirens were tested every week - 1pm on Saturdays. We had tornado drills in school and a couple of warnings during which we had to take cover. Each classroom had a designated place to go in the school and we had to duck-n-cover.

Like a PP, I get alerts from MoCo and also have Weather Bug on my phone.

During the Derecho last summer, as soon as I saw the wind line, I yelled to Dh that we had to grab the kids and head to the basement. He thought I was overreacting. "It's not a tornado warning!" Well, I've seen storms like that before, so I knew, and when we saw all the damage the next day (luckily we only lost power) I told him to never question me about a storm again!



OVERKILL.
Anonymous
Post 05/21/2013 20:04     Subject: Re:Does your town have tornado sirens?
Anonymous wrote:Grew up in SE Michigan. Not tornado alley, but plenty of tornado warnings and touchdowns. Growing up, [b]the sirens were tested every week - 1pm on Saturdays[/b. We had tornado drills in school and a couple of warnings during which we had to take cover. Each classroom had a designated place to go in the school and we had to duck-n-cover.

Like a PP, I get alerts from MoCo and also have Weather Bug on my phone.

During the Derecho last summer, as soon as I saw the wind line, I yelled to Dh that we had to grab the kids and head to the basement. He thought I was overreacting. "It's not a tornado warning!" Well, I've seen storms like that before, so I knew, and when we saw all the damage the next day (luckily we only lost power) I told him to never question me about a storm again!



OVERKILL.
Anonymous
Post 05/21/2013 19:00     Subject: Re:Does your town have tornado sirens?
I have the weather radio app on my iPhone. It gives off a loud beep followed by an audio warning whenever there is severe weather warning in the areas you designate. You can pick which kinds you get. I have home, the kids' school and my office all designated. I also have the area of my in-laws' beach house desiognated, which I forget about until it goes off in the middle of a meeting. Beep beep beep - warning - the National Weather Service has issued a Hurricane Watch for [name of town]. Oops.

I read an article about how the frequency and severity of tornadoes is going to increase because of global warning so I freaked out, got the app and also bought weather radios for the house. Who knows? Maybe the article was a plant by the app creator!
Anonymous
Post 05/21/2013 17:50     Subject: Does your town have tornado sirens?
Anonymous wrote:During the earthquake, I got into a doorframe...which I found out later was NOT the right thing to do. Damn movies and TV shows!


Well, it's not the worst thing, unless it's next to a giant window or something. Doorframes was what they recommended when I was growing up in CA in the '80s. Then they decided under strong tables was better.
Anonymous
Post 05/21/2013 08:16     Subject: Re:Does your town have tornado sirens?
The Fairfax County system sometimes works. I have gotten severe storm warnings after the storm has passed. I have the weather channel alerts and I keep an eye on the radar. This site is also a good source- I had been watching the Derecho on the radar when people in the Reston area posted that they lost power, so I had time to grab the flashlights and shut things off (thanks Restonites! Restonioans?)
Anonymous
Post 05/21/2013 08:01     Subject: Re:Does your town have tornado sirens?
We have sirens on our hometown. Tornadoes are fairly common, but thankfully they are not typically as strong as the ones in the Midwest. I will add that when the sirens go off, most people go outside to try to spot the tornado.