Just found out on the news this evening (9 News Now, WUSA) that we don’t have tornado sirens in this general area. At least not since the Cold War era. According to the Dept. of Homeland Security, residents are to “take responsibility for themselves” and purchase weather scanners or sign up for alerts…and if you’re stupid enough to go to bed on a stormy night (even if it’s before it gets ugly and watches/warnings go out), you are on your own. Considering this area gets tornadoes on a regular basis (particularly during hurricane season because they get spawned off of the hurricane/tropical storm/depression system), it seems pretty risky to not have a public warning system. The alert system depends on internet/phone/cell networks staying viable in bad weather to alert residents in an area. What if your alerts are set for home, but you’re visiting somewhere else? How do you get notified?
Makes me feel a little less silly about staying up until 12:15am when the tornado warning in my area expired last night.
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3 Comments
No need to feel silly. And a weather radio is a great investment, but it can also annoy the heck out of you during the stormy season, going off to announce approaching thunderstorms. Get some sleep. And Happy Mother’s Day!
My dad is Captain Weather and is obsessed with his weather radio. This is the man whose favorite present EVER from me was a digital rain gage. As for me? I choose to ignore because I don’t like to have interrupted sleep and hope for the best instead.
You need one of those weather rocks. You know, the ones that if they’re wet it’s raining, if they’re white it’s snowing, if it’s missing there’s a tornado…