There has been a lot of talk out there about tornado sirens and their use. I have been working hard on getting the word out to everyone that tornado sirens are NOT intended to warn people indoors. You must have a way to receive warnings via NOAA weather radio, WeatherCall 7, etc. A secondary source is also encouraged as a back up in case your primary source fails.
Think
about it... how are you going to hear the sirens indoors while
you're sleeping or a loud thunderstorm is overhead? Also, did
you know the National Weather Service does NOT activate those
sirens? They are controlled by local county officials.
The NWS in North Little Rock only acts in an advisory role for
Pulaski county.
I thought it would be a good idea to find out the policy for each county in the state. About a week ago, in cooperation with the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management, I sent this email to all county Emergency Managers across Arkansas. Only a handful responded. It's very interesting to see how each county approaches the use of sirens. Some don't even have them. If you have any further questions, I recommend contacting your local officials. Thanks to all the Emergency Managers who responded!
"I
am conducting a survey of all the county Emergency Managers in
Arkansas.
In a brief email, could you explain your policy in regards to the activation of tornado sirens.
Do you sound them when your entire county is placed under a tornado warning?
Do you have the ability to sound only the sirens which fall within the National Weather Service warning polygon?
If a citizen of your county reports a tornado or funnel cloud, do you sound the sirens?
Does that person who reports that have to be a trained spotter or can it be anybody who calls it in?
Thanks for your participation. I plan on placing these results on the Arkansas Weather Blog at katv.com. With all the talk about severe weather and sirens, I thought it would be helpful for Arkansans to know the policy in their county."
Thanks,
Todd Yakoubian
Meteorologist
Little Rock, AR
KATV
In a brief email, could you explain your policy in regards to the activation of tornado sirens.
Do you sound them when your entire county is placed under a tornado warning?
Do you have the ability to sound only the sirens which fall within the National Weather Service warning polygon?
If a citizen of your county reports a tornado or funnel cloud, do you sound the sirens?
Does that person who reports that have to be a trained spotter or can it be anybody who calls it in?
Thanks for your participation. I plan on placing these results on the Arkansas Weather Blog at katv.com. With all the talk about severe weather and sirens, I thought it would be helpful for Arkansans to know the policy in their county."
Thanks,
Todd Yakoubian
Meteorologist
Little Rock, AR
KATV
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Ashley
County
All
the sirens in Ashley County are located in Incorporated areas. The
sirens are controlled by the Mayor of each City/Town.
They
are not controlled or sounded collectively, but at the discretion of
each mayor. Generally they will sound the siren when informed by Law
Enforcement or Spotters (Our Rescue Units) that a tornado has been
located or spotted.
If
a citizen reports a suspected tornado, we try to confirm it from
trained Spotters in the County and report the location to the
appropriate Mayors. They may also activate the sirens based on
Doppler/NOAA Tornado Warnings from the internet.
Baxter
County
Baxter
County at this time sounds 32 Tornado Sirens when NWS issues a
Tornado Warning for our County. We also utilize Alert X Press. This
is all handled at our 911 center.
Benton
County
- Reasons for ActivationMunicipalities have developed outdoor warning systems to alert and notify citizens in outdoor areas of emergency situations. These situations include but may not be limited to natural emergencies, transportation accidents involving hazardous materials, emergencies at fixed facilities, acts of terrorism or other catastrophic events in which the community needs to be informed immediately. Citizens in indoor areas should not mistakenly wait to hear a siren as their only source of warning information. A NOAA All Hazards Radio with Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME) technology, and the Benton County alert notification system (BC Alert) are good methods of receiving warning messages indoors. Additionally, some communities maintain other warning systems to alert citizens indoors.
- Activation GuidelinesEven though communities vary in specific criteria for activating OWS, there are some commonalities in determining activation guidelines.The following are considered minimum activation guidelines:
- Tornadic conditions are impacting or expected to impact the municipality.
- Law enforcement, fire service, or a trained weather spotter reports a tornado in the municipality, or in a neighboring jurisdiction that has the potential to affect the municipality.
Clay
county
Clay
County doesn’t have weather siren’s.
However,
some cities in Clay County (Corning, Piggott, Rector) have a limited
number of siren’s which they own and control themselves. I’m not
sure about the criteria they use to activate their siren’s.
Crawford
County
A
municipality should make external notifications to neighboring
jurisdictions indicating the OWS has been activated. Notification
should also be made to the Benton County Emergency Operations
Center.
Crawford
County Arkansas sounds all 22 warning sirens when a portion of the
county is placed under a TORNADO WARNING by the National Weather
Service.
·
Crawford County, Arkansas has the ability to sound a single siren,
sound only the sirens in the City of Van Buren
·
This is depending on the warning polygon that is one of the reasons
we sound all the sirens. See the answers above.
·
We do not sound the sirens if a citizen reports a tornado or funnel
cloud until we provide that information to the Tulsa National Weather
Service and they issue the warning.
·
The National Weather Service has been very accurate with its Server
Weather Predictions. We have been warned of Sever Weather as
much as 2 to 3 days before the front moves through our county.
Crawford County has been working with the media to promote NOAA
Weather Radios with S.A.M.E. Technology and Battery Backup. We had
our repeater, that sends the radio signal to the sirens, get knocked
out by lightning last year and we were unable to sound the warning.
We also emphasis they are OUTDOOR WARNING SYSTEMS that were designed
during the cold war (40s & 50s) to tell those outdoors to
take shelter because of nuclear attack. Also that they are hard to
here indoors and during the storm.
·
We have encoders at two locations in the event the
primary one fails. The encoders to activate our Warning Siren System
are at the Crawford County Sheriff’s Department (primary) or as a
backup at the Alma Police Department.
City
Of Conway
CEOC-20
USING THE EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM TO WARN OF AN EMERGENCY
I.
Procedures
A.
The Emergency Alert System (EAS) is a federally mandated warning
system and is available for public safety, police, fire and emergency
management use in case of an emergency or disaster and there is a
need to notify the citizens of Faulkner County.
B.
This system shall not be used except in cases of emergency or
disaster and with the proper authorization.
1.
Authorization may only be granted by an employee of the City of
Conway or the National Weather Service.
Do
you sound them when your entire county is placed under a tornado
warning? No, Just when a storm may contain the possibility of a
tornado and Conway is in the path of the storm.
Do
you have the ability to sound only the sirens which fall within the
National Weather Service warning polygon? We just handle the sirens
within the City of Conway.
If
a citizen of your county reports a tornado or funnel cloud, do you
sound the sirens? No, we rely on trained spotters/emergency personnel
to confirm.
Does
that person who reports that have to be a trained spotter or can it
be anybody who calls it in? Anyone can call but, trained spotters or
emergency personnel must confirm.
Cleburne
County
We
do not set every siren off in the county, just the ones that fall in
the polygon that the warning is for. As far as a citizen reporting,
we verify before we sound the sirens. A trained spotter calls it in,
we do set off the sirens.
Crittenden
County
The
County dose not have them each city has the way they do this and i am
not sure when they do it but it is the way the reports come out from
NWS. We do not get Little Rock station here.
Desha
County
If
the NWS issues a tornado warning for the areas that have sirens they
are activated or if a first responder or spotter sees one it can be
set off. Only about 30 to 40 % of population is covered.
Drew
County
Drew
County has no sirens or warning, we have been earmarked a $366,000
pre-mitigation grant in 2010, and in the final stages for approval.
Garland
county
Do
you sound them when your entire county is placed under a tornado
warning?
We
don't use sirens in Garland County. Our decision is supported
by a technical study which shows outdoor warning systems to be
ineffective in our terrain and cost prohibitive. Garland opted
for the more inclusive indoor warnings and installed our own
NOAA transmitter using FEMA mitigation funds. Public outreach
programs of any nature also include a weather response briefing
and public education regarding warnings and watches for our area.
We have one of the best SkyWarn Teams in the state. Diamond
Lakes provide excellent weather information coordination during
events impacting Garland and surrounding counties. Garland was
the first Storm Ready Community in the Little Rock warning area and
is a recipient of the prestigious Mark Trail Award.
Do
you have the ability to sound only the sirens which fall within the
National Weather Service warning polygon?
Grant
County
Grant
County activates all sirens within the county when we are placed
under a warning. We do have the capability to sound each siren
individually.
We will activate sirens if information is provided by our trained storm spotters.
We will activate sirens if information is provided by our trained storm spotters.
Howard
County
Only
three cities have outdoor sirens Nashville,Mineral Springs &
Dierks. They are responsible for the activation of their sirens.They
would not normally activate them if a private citizen called in. They
rely on the National Weather Service ,trained weather spotters or the
OEM of Howard County to sound a warning.
Independence
county
Independence
County at one time had 24 sirens located thru out the county and had
the ability to select a siren as needed, or sound all of them at
once. As you know the sirens were only good for out door use and
as the environment changed, we changed our outlook on how to alert
the public. At this time we no longer use the sirens but use the
Alert Express call system. This is a free sign up system, activated
and maintained by the Emergency Management office and 911 dispatch
center. We place the sign ups in their respective fire department
areas and they are notified by fire coverage areas as needed. Either
single or multiple areas can be notified by a phone call(landline or
cells). We have a pre-recorded message on the template or can
change as needed.
All
weather reports that come into the 911 center are transferred over
to the emergency operations center. In most cases the EOC has
already been in contact with law enforcement and the fire
department the storm will impact first and tries to get a
confirmation of the report before we set the alert off. It gives us a
better idea of the direction and content of the storm. Using TV and
radar sites helps us get ahead and be ready as it approaches our
county.
Izard
county
We
are struggling with this issue at this time. Currently the
policy is that the 911 Dispatchers sound the alarms for the entire
county anytime the National Weather Service issues a tornado warning
for any part of the county.
What
this causes is unnecessary alarms in portions of the county.
For instance the last activation was for a tornado warning for the
very south end of the county covering only the city of Mount
Pleasant. All alarms were sounded even though the rest of the
county was in clear blue skies. This causes the nursing homes
and hospital to move patients even though there is no direct threat
to them.
We
have discussed this with the Sheriff on two occasions and he has not
modified the policy. Their concern is that the weather warnings
move as the storm pattern moves across the county. Since the
911 dispatchers may be busy and miss a new warning his thought is
that this is better than not warning someone.
In
addition we currently do not have an all clear signal.
As
I said, we are still working to improve our warning system at this
time. Thanks for the opportunity to comment.
Jackson
County
1.
Sirens are sounded when we receive notice from the
National
Weather Service of a tornado warning or a
sighting
of a funnel cloud is confirmed by the NWS.
2.
We do not have the ability to sound within the polygon.
3.
If a citizen sighting is reported we attempt to verify it
with
the NWS.
4.
We take calls from anyone, but with a NWS Trained
Spotter
we would place more credibility, but all calls
are
verified first with NWS.
Little
Rock
It
is the policy of the City of Little Rock to sound all Outdoor Warning
Sirens whenever a Tornado Warning has been issued for any part of the
city. We do have the capability to sound only certain sirens,
but by sounding all sirens we can ensure that citizens who may be
outside or traveling to other parts of the City are aware that severe
weather is in the area and they should take the necessary
precautions. Please let me know if you have any additional
questions and the City of Little Rock appreciates the invaluable
service the KATV Weather Team provides to our citizens.
Lonoke
county
Lonoke
County utilizes Code Red Weather Warning.
Perry
County
Perry
County only has 2 Sirens in the county they are both in the City
of Perryville. It depends on the situation on how and when they are
activated. If the weather service has a warning for the entire county
or for the Perryville area they are activated. If a citizen calls in
it is confirmed by a weather spotter before activated.
Pike
county
We
only have one siren in Pike County that is functional and it is in
Glenwood Arkansas. We are currently in our second year of the
Code Red warning system. Each person that signs up for the
service gets a call when we are put under a severe thunderstorm
warning, a tornado warning or a flash flood warning. The
service is paid for by the County and seems to be working well so
far. Storm spotters are out when any inclement weather event is
anticipated or announced. The city of Glenwood sound their
siren, and sounding is determined by the police department or the
fire department. We are very rural in Pike County and the Code
Red system has been deemed as the best solution for the citizens of
Pike County
Poinsett
county
Do
you sound them when your entire county is placed under a tornado
warning? No, Trumann and Marked Tree has sirens.
West side from Harrisburg on Uses Code Red.
Do you have the ability to sound only the sirens which fall within the National Weather Service warning polygon? Unknown
If a citizen of your county reports a tornado or funnel cloud, do you sound the sirens? No, we send the local law enforcement to check the report.
Does that person who reports that have to be a trained spotter or can it be anybody who calls it in? Yes a train spotter or law enforcement.
Do you have the ability to sound only the sirens which fall within the National Weather Service warning polygon? Unknown
If a citizen of your county reports a tornado or funnel cloud, do you sound the sirens? No, we send the local law enforcement to check the report.
Does that person who reports that have to be a trained spotter or can it be anybody who calls it in? Yes a train spotter or law enforcement.
Pope
County
Pope
County has two sets of sirens to deal with. There are the ones
that are owned and set off by the Arkansas Department of Health.
Then there are the ones owned by a couple of cities in the county and
are set off by the 9-1-1 Center. At this time, we look at the
polygon warning issued by the National Weather Service. We also
use trained weather spotters to provide us with information about the
conditions in the field. We do not have the capability to sound
the sirens that are in the polygon alone. We do not have siren
coverage for the entire county. If a citizen calls in and
reports a funnel cloud, we would not sound the siren unless the
weather service had a warning out for that area or a trained spotter
or law enforcement officer was in the area. We would still look
into the possibility if a citizen were to call in with information
pertaining to a possible funnel cloud. All sirens in the county would
only be sounded at the same time if all areas were affected by the
tornado warning. If you need any other information from our
county, please feel free to contact me at the information below.
Saline
County
This
Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) outlines actions that should be
taken by the Saline County 911 Dispatch Center (herein referred to as
the Saline County 24-hour warning point) when circumstances dictate
activation of the outdoor warning siren system in Saline County.
TEST AND ACTIVATION PROCEDURE:
- Sirens should be tested every Wednesday at noon for approximately ONE MINUTE except during inclement weather. (If in doubt as whether to test the sirens, contact the on-call person for Saline County Emergency Management).
- ACTIVATION PROCEDURE
- Click on safety icon; will show “unlock”
- Click on WX alert; siren will sound.
- DEACTIVATION PROCEDURE
- Click on safety icon; will show “unlock”
- Click on WX cancel; siren will stop.
ACTIVATION PROCEDURES FOR REAL EMERGENCY EVENTS:
- Tornado WARNING (NOT a tornado WATCH)
- Nuclear attack
TORNADO
WARNING PROCEDURE:
During
severe weather, the public safety dispatcher shift supervisor will
assign someone to monitor severe weather giving special attention to:
- NAWAS phone line
- Tone alert radio (TAR)
- ACIC – weather statement
- TV or radio (turn TV/radio on and volume low)
- When the Saline County 24-hour warning point receives notification through the NAWAS; TAR; ACIC; radio or TV of a TORNADO WARNING anywhere in Saline County, the sirens should be activated immediately! There should be NO DELAY. Remember, this is an early warning system designed to give the citizen as much warning as possible so that they may take cover. If a tornado is in an adjoining county and headed toward Saline County, the dispatcher assigned to monitor the weather should consult with the shift supervisor regarding whether or not to activate the sirens. For example, if a tornado is in Garland, Hot Springs, or Grant County and headed toward Saline County – activate the sirens! Activation of the sirens based on phone calls of sightings is at the discretion of the shift supervisor. If the sighting is by someone in a position of authority such as, SCSO patrol personnel, SCSO commanders (Majors, Captains, Sheriff), the Saline County Judge, County Emergency Management Director or Deputy Director, then activate the sirens.
- INSTRUCTION: Follow activation procedure as outlined above, (however, DO NOT CLICK ON WX CANCEL). Sirens will automatically time themselves out. Upon activation in real events, the sirens will time out automatically in three minutes. Sirens are only cancelled in tests.
NUCLEAR
ATTACK PROCEDURE:
- When the Saline County 24-hour warning point receives notification through the NAWAS; TAR; ACIC; radio or TV of a nuclear attack in the Continental United States, the sirens should be activated.
- INSTRUCTION: Follow activation procedure as outlined above, (however DO NOT CLICK ON WX CANCEL). Sirens will automatically time themselves out. Upon activation in real events, the sirens will time out automatically in three minutes. Sirens are only cancelled in tests.
St.
Francis County
In
a brief email, could you explain your policy in regards to the
activation of tornado sirens.
Each
municipality in St. Francis County owns and is responsible for the
activation of their weather sirens. They have varying policies
for who activates the siren (Police Dept or Fire Dept) but most only
activate when their community has been listed in a TORNADO WARNING.
Do
you sound them when your entire county is placed under a tornado
warning?
No,
only when the affected community is within the tornado warning
polygon
Do
you have the ability to sound only the sirens which fall within the
National Weather Service warning polygon?
Not
all the communities in St. Francis County have weather sirens but of
the ones that do have them, all but Forrest City only have 1 siren.
Forrest City has multiple sirens and they activate all sirens
simultaneously.
If
a citizen of your county reports a tornado or funnel cloud, do you
sound the sirens?
No,
only after a first responder verifies the sighting. Most of our
first responders are trained weather spotters and we continually
encourage all first responders to attend and refresh with the NWS
weather spotter course.
Does
that person who reports that have to be a trained spotter or can it
be anybody who calls it in?
Anyone
does call in but activation occurs after verification.
Sevier
county
We
do sound our tornado sirens under a warning. Yes we have the
ability to activate our sirens where needed. We have several trained
spotters in our county. When bad weather is in our area they call in
the reports of any bad weather that is in our area.
Washington
County
Washington
County does not utilize sirens. We have Code Red for severe weather
warning. It works by using the polygons that the NWS puts out with
the warnings.
White
county
Do
you sound them when your entire county is placed under a tornado
warning?
When
White County is put under a warning we set off the entire county (we
do not set off City of Searcy, Beebe or Bald Knob - they have their
own to set off)
Do
you have the ability to sound only the sirens which fall within the
National Weather Service warning polygon?
If
a particular area of the county has a tornado siren we can set the
siren for that area
If
a citizen of your county reports a tornado or funnel cloud, do you
sound the sirens?
No
- we do not - only when notified by the weather service - we do
however dispatch a Deputy to the area
Does
that person who reports that have to be a trained spotter or can it
be anybody who calls it in?
If
we receive a 911 call from ANYONE who says they see a cloud or
tornado we broadcast that information over our radio and have a
deputy/officer respond to the area. If we have a confirmed tornado
(trained spotter or deputy) on the ground we will set off the
siren for any areas that may be effected
Thanks
for your participation. I plan on placing these results on the
Arkansas Weather Blog at katv.com.
With all the talk about severe weather and sirens, I thought it would
be helpful for Arkansans to know the policy in their county.
Woodruff
County
The
sirens in Woodruff County are set off by 911 when the National
Weather Service places our county under a warning that is when 911
set them off, and that is when our trained spotters and myself go out
to our different locations in the county for what ever area the
warning covering like Augusta, McCrory, etc. Yes the sirens are in
McCrory, Augusta, Patterson they all go off at the same time. The
trained spotters if they see something they call into 911 other than
that it is when the National Weather Service places our county under
warning.
Yell
County
Do
you sound them when your entire county is placed under a tornado
warning?
No, only when the siren coverage area is in the warning.
Yell County uses the nuclear sirens for the Dardanelle Area. The Nuclear sirens are places in the ten mile Nuclear Emergency Planning Zone and are the only warning system we have in place in the County. The other cities in Yell County who have sirens have their own siren program such as Danville and Plainview.
Do you have the ability to sound only the sirens which fall within the National Weather Service warning polygon?
No
If a citizen of your county reports a tornado or funnel cloud, do you sound the sirens?
No
Does that person who reports that have to be a trained spotter or can it be anybody who calls it in?
N/A
No, only when the siren coverage area is in the warning.
Yell County uses the nuclear sirens for the Dardanelle Area. The Nuclear sirens are places in the ten mile Nuclear Emergency Planning Zone and are the only warning system we have in place in the County. The other cities in Yell County who have sirens have their own siren program such as Danville and Plainview.
Do you have the ability to sound only the sirens which fall within the National Weather Service warning polygon?
No
If a citizen of your county reports a tornado or funnel cloud, do you sound the sirens?
No
Does that person who reports that have to be a trained spotter or can it be anybody who calls it in?
N/A
___________________________________________________________
Here's
a late Thursday response from Clark county
In
a brief email, could you explain your policy in regards to the
activation of tornado sirens. In Clark County, our Tornado Sirens are
activated when a warning is issued for the area that the siren is
located. It can also be activated by the Sheriff, Police Chief, OEM
Director or when any trained spotter has confirmation of a tornado.
They may be exceptions based on case by case but this is the
guidelines we operate under.
Do
you sound them when your entire county is placed under a tornado
warning?
No,
Most warning are now very specific to an area. Only the impacted
areas are warned.
Do
you have the ability to sound only the sirens which fall within the
National Weather Service warning polygon?
See
Above
If
a citizen of your county reports a tornado or funnel cloud, do you
sound the sirens?
See
Above
Does
that person who reports that have to be a trained spotter or can it
be anybody who calls it in?
See
Above
Logan
County
Logan
County does not have storm sirens except the ones in the Eastern
portion of our county. Those sirens are the property of the ANO
Nuclear Plant (Entergy). They are for nuclear events, but can be used
to alert weather warnings if needed. The City of Paris has tornado
sirens and they are tested every Wednesday at noon. The City of
Booneville also has tornado sirens and are activated on Wednesdays
also. The small town of Ratcliff, AR are investigating sirens for
their city now. The town of Magazine also has tornado sirens and
are tested on Wednesdays. The County is in the process of possibly
using Codespear ( AR. Dept. of Health) for our rural residents,
but are not there yet.
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