View Full Version : Tornado siren guidelines changing



bchris02
11-16-2015, 02:10 PM
Oklahoma City tornado warning siren guidelines may change | News OK (http://newsok.com/oklahoma-city-tornado-warning-siren-guidelines-may-change/article/5460768)

It looks like they are finally exploring changing the guidelines for sounding tornado sirens, dividing OK county into sectors and only sounding the sirens in areas that are in danger. This is a good move being that Oklahoma County is very large and too many times the sirens sound when there is no real threat at all. A good example of this was in 2013 when the tornado touched down in east Edmond and moved out towards Arcadia. There was no reason for sirens to sound downtown for that.

Uptowner
11-16-2015, 02:21 PM
I don't hate the idea. But there's days where I'm unplugged from the info-stream and didn't even know the weather was bad until we had a warning siren sound for OK county. It lets me know to flip the tube on and check the radar.

bchris02
11-16-2015, 02:25 PM
I don't hate the idea. But there's days where I'm unplugged from the info-stream and didn't even know the weather was bad until we had a warning siren sound for OK county. It lets me know to flip the tube on and check the radar.

There are definitely plusses and minuses to both ways. However, what tends to happen when you sound sirens for the whole country is people start to ignore the sirens. Sounding solely for threatened areas means people would have to take them seriously.

I think the rule of thumb is when you live in Oklahoma, if its April or May you need to be weather aware every day.

Zuplar
11-16-2015, 02:33 PM
There are definitely plusses and minuses to both ways. However, what tends to happen when you sound sirens for the whole country is people start to ignore the sirens. Sounding solely for threatened areas means people would have to take them seriously.

I think the rule of thumb is when you live in Oklahoma, if its April or May you need to be weather aware every day.

Bingo.

MagzOK
11-16-2015, 03:59 PM
I would urge anyone with a smartphone to download a local weather app that uses location-based services for warnings and watches. ATS Weather, 9 weather, WxAlert USA, those are all good just from personal experience.

MsProudSooner
11-16-2015, 04:21 PM
Several people where I work have some kind of weather app. It's kinda comical when they start going off at once.