Brit Reacts to American Tornado Sirens Are SCARY! 

I live about two blocks from one in Temple, Texas. They test it every Saturday at 11 am. It is loud, but it does come in handy. Specifically two weeks ago when a tornado touched down about a mile away. No one was injured, thanks to those sirens.

Tornado sirens are tested the first Tuesday of every month at 10am in Illinois. We're all accustomed to them.

Nick, In Columbus Ohio where I live tornado sirens are tested for maintenance EVERY SINGLE Wednesday at 12 noon sharp! The sirens can be heard for about 1 minute when tested. Yes, it sounds like an Air Raid Siren from World War 2! Though scary, Tornado sirens are actually a GOOD thing to WARN people of Tornado warnings to take cover. If there was no sirens to alert, People would be oblivious to the oncoming tornado and that is when high number of deaths and injuries occurs especially back in early days before the alert system and radar broadcasts over the tv and radio.

The alternating wailing Chicago siren has been compared to Satan laughing.

Yeah since moving to kentucky and now tennesee I've heard these sirens a number of times and it's bone chilling especially when you "lived" in a trailer park and heard that siren.

I have a tornado siren just down the street from my house here in Michigan. They test it at 1 pm on the first Saturday of every month. I have gotten used to the testing of the siren but when it goes off any other time, it can be extremely scary.....especially since I live in a mobile home.

I grew up in a small West Texas town. They generally tested them in the late morning when tornadoes are extremely rare, so no one really panics. Happens about once a month. Although they no longer do it, due to the advent of smart phones, the Siren also had 3 purposes and 3 ways of sounding off. 2 blasts = fire, 3 = tornado or other dangerous weather that demanded shelter (then it'd pause and sound again until it is safe), and continuous tone = air raid (obviously never heard that one). We all learned this in school. Nowdays, they only use it for anything requiring taking shelter and keep it going until the threat is gone, but they also send out the same warnings via text messages

Both the alert and attack were used in WW2. You get used to them being tested and most people nearby dont take phone calls when they are testing cuz you can't hear anything in nearby buildings. They're meant as an outdoor warning, but they can shake nearby structures with their sound waves.

I grew up in a very small town in northern New York, and our fire siren (used to summon the volunteer fire department as well as signal potential air raids, and similar to the Thunderbolt) was blown daily except Sunday, at noon and 1:00 PM and on Sundays at 1:00 PM. It was also tested at 7:00 PM on Thursday or Friday evening. We never lived more than a mile from the fire house. The dogs hated it, but eventually got used to it.

Alot of us in the US heard them yesterday as they test them the first Saturday of the month. As it happened my friend from the UK made his first visit on Saturday the 1st and it scared the shit out of him in Michigan nobody cares about them even when they're is a tornado and I tried to explain that to him but he was a wreck for hours.

There's a siren 3 blocks from my house. There's one a block from my work downtown, and there are several sirens there, which echo between the buildings. Every 1st Wednesday of the month at 1 PM they test them. 1 minute of alert. 1 minute of silence. 1 minute of attack. Now when they go off because of storms, that's a couple few times in the summer. I (and most people know) usually go outside, look at the sky. But, there was one time the siren went off and I felt sick to my stomach and just weird all over. So, I crammed my cat in her carrier and went to the basement. It tuns out an EF0 passed a couple blocks from my house. An EF0 is a weak tornado. A few buildings had minor roof and gutter damage, but it mostly caused chaos with garbage cans, lawn furniture, etc...and a lot of tree damage that led to downed power lines. And yes, the Chicago siren it the coolest/creepiest.

We know when our local tornado sirens are tested each week. The sirens in my area in Indianapolis are tested every Friday morning at 11:00 am.. It lasts about 1 minute.

13:32 That is the one that you heard when he was playing examples of the “Alert” and “Attack” signals.

In my city, the sirens were on the roofs of public buildings [Police, Fire, Schools. etc]. They were tested every day at Noon. The old Civil Defense sirens are long gone, but there are new electronic sirens for a different reason. At the harbor, there's a facility that compresses and stores liquified natural gas. Ships carrying LNG also dock at the facility. The new sirens are to warn of a leak or spillage. Once a year, there's an emergency drill at the Port and the sirens are tested as part of the drill. I can very clearly hear the one on the roof of the school two blocks away.

In Michigan my parents home is legit next to a siren. You’d hear it and wouldn’t bat an eye. All that you think is “must be the first Friday of the month 🤷🏻‍♀️”. Only time we care is if we have a severe weather notice in the forecast

All tests are scheduled. The only time to worry is when they activate off schedule

My local siren is at the fire station two blocks from my house. It’s tested the first Friday of the month at noon.

I'm used to it. No weather warning on my phone, no problem. Even if I get a tornado warning on my phone though I'm not moving until I here sirens in my area, so yeah they need to keep those. We had one touch down behind my house in the end of fall 2023 and go through our town but the sirens never went off, they didn't officially admit that my county and our neighboring county were hit by them until March 2024. My only signs were the most beautiful purple 🌩 I've ever seen, followed by rain that was lashing me on the porch from every direction, at which I retreated into the house, and then my house started getting pelted by Acorns and black walnuts from every direction when the trees for them were all behind my garage behind the back of our yard. All in all we got very lucky here, the worst was some homes had roof damage from trees leaning on them and a crushed car port, at least in my town, nobody died or was injured as far as I know. Well that and we lost a whole lot of very large old-growth tree's that were torn up by the roots.

We have several in town. Every Wednesday at noon I call it dog howling time because they get tested and all the dogs start howling.

The sounds made are designed so you never get used to them. Some still ignore them because there are so many events with no reason. And where tornados are common this is a real thing. My area gets maybe 5 or 6 tornados withing a 15km radius a year. Most are small. So imagine you get a dozen or maybe 20 sirens events for something not likely to be near you. People get complacent. They are working on making the system more reliable.

I get notifications of bad weather on my cell phone and one just popped up a while ago, telling me that there might be some severe storms here tonight or tomorrow

I went to school about 3-4 miles from Broadmoor Hospital and every monday at 10am they'd test the siren which sounded like an old air raid siren. ANY other time there had been an Escape and we had to leave school in groups.

Growing up in small town Iowa they ran the siren at noon everyday. Now they test them on the first saturday of each month at 1pm.

Every single fire department around here has them, and they are used for every fire and EMS call the department is dispatched to. I just turn on my scanner app to hear what the call is. The tornado warning is a long solid blast, but it's never sounded. Even when we had an EF2 carve a 15 mile path across the county destroying 3 barns.

Every Friday in my Indiana hometown, I think 12:30pm, a perfect distraction from school. I never found the actual siren to be too concerning since it’s a lottery of luck in this case. Yeah you may lose it all but the community the next day would see to it that your bad luck ended with the Tornado

Here in Oklahoma it’s every first Tuesday of every month

You tend to become pretty weather aware when you live in a region prone to severe storms and tornadoes. I lived in Arizona in the western United States for years and tornadoes weren’t a concern, they have some there but they are generally weak and very uncommon. I moved to Alabama in the southeast United States where they are much more common and a much higher potential for stronger tornadoes and we are very weather aware now, especially around May which is peak tornado season. The central region of the US is known as tornado alley and where I’m at is a secondary region known as Dixie alley. Personally I don’t rely on the sirens because there are a number of reasons why you may not hear them. The NOAA radio that he mentioned should be bare minimum in severe weather prone areas, a loud alert goes off whenever a tornado watch or warning, severe thunderstorm watch or warning, hurricane watch or warning etc is issued for your county.

The sound of Thunderbolt 1000T is burned into my brain as a kid. Those things went off all the time. Such a creepy/cool sound.

In the UK we still have cold war 1960's sirens used primarily for flood defences and nothing more, rise and fall is for alert and continuous is for all clear. In my local town we actually have a real WW2 siren sounding the continuous all clear for 2 minutes every Armistice day, it failed a few years back but the council got it fixed and now it's back on the original building (former WW2 police station). Most working sirens are capable of sounding the rise and fall but this can only be done if the government allow it, sounding the all clear is fine on the condition it is for more than 30 seconds. Hope that info is of use and now you have a new subscriber😁

I live fairly close to a siren. I never get use to it. As I mentioned in another comment, my city tests the first Wednesday of the month at 1pm. Ironically that was yesterday lol, so at 1pm I’ll hear the sirens go off, pause, ask myself what the date, day and time it is. If that checks out, I’ll ignore it but if it doesn’t, I go where I need to go. I may also check my weather app or local meteorologist FB page to see if anything is said just to double check, mainly if the weather kinda bad and testing just so happens to take place at the same time. I actually dealt with a warning 2 weeks and another person I know had one a couple days ago. It was scary because it was extremely slow moving rotation and it had dropped a couple tornadoes that day already. The person I know doesn’t have a good place to go if there ever was one, which makes me worry when this situation arises.

In Iowa they tested it on Saturday at noon because the kids weren't in school. All the dogs in town would howl. We had tornado drills in school where we went in the hallway and put our heads between our legs and kissed our ass goodbye. Good times, lol. Anything to get out of class.

Bear in mind sirens tested on a clear sunny day sound totally different then they do during a storm.

I'm used to it by now, it's every first Wednesday of the month

I'm from Wisconsin. The apartment complex I live in is very close to one. Literally like a few feet away. Ours are always tested every Wednesday at 01:30 p.m. I used to be a night worker and I would get scared out of my sleep when it goes off. Now I work a 9 to 5 so I don't hear it as often. But the rare moments I do just always scare me silly haha

Tornado sirens are scary, but tornadoes are much scarier. I've been fortunate enough to have seen a few tornadoes, but from a safe (very) distance. It's when you drive along the path that you truly understand the utter devastation tornadoes leave in their wake.

I miss the ACA dual tone Allertor 125. Really great sounding. Unfortunately being replaced by more modern electo types

My buddy has Wednesday's off work which is the day they test these things, so I go hang out over there and the siren is right across the street

My husband is asleep right now so I am in another room with the volume turned down. I don’t wanna wake him up with this. We live in what is called “Tornado Alley “ where tornadoes are more likely to hit. It’s tornado season right now.

Here in Chicago, IL (and I don't mean the Chicago area -- I mean the actual CITY of Chicago), we have a system of 3 main sirens. The legacy system used chryslers, thnderbolts, and some other types of sirens before the strict switch to federal. You should watch a few videos of the sirens here, before and after. dark panic posted a 20 minute video of the sirens going off. Federal Signal 2001-SRN Gen 2, Gen 3, and Gen 4 - - 'Used Fast Wail in 2008-2019' Federal Signal 2001-130 -- Same as the SRN, just rectangle back cover. - 'Used Fast Wail in 2008-2019' Federal Signal Modulator 3012*MC, 6024*MC, 6024*UV, and 8 8032*UV's - 'Used alternate wail in 2008-2019' - 'Wrigley Field Mod 6024*MC Used CUSTOM Fast Wail in 2008-2019' Federal Signal DSA Multiple Variants - 'Used Alternate Wail in 2008-2019' Speaking of the Thunderbolt - There actually is no such thing as a 1000T. There is only a 1000, 1003, 2000, and the portable System 7000 -- 7012, 7022, and 7026. The 'T" means dual-tone, though they used the same everything, except for the chopper itself. The chopper was divided into a top and a bottom half -- with the bottom being the original 5 port, and the top being 6 ports. It's only considered a 1000T because that's the name siren enthusiasts gave it. The Thunderbolt 2000 was only ever single tone, and only few ever made. It's the same as a 1000, but with a gas powered blower.

This is my second comment by the way. Single Tone Thunderbolts are actually LOUDER than Dual Tone Thunderbolts by a few decibels.This goes for all Dual Tone sirens except for ones like the 2/3T22. The reason for this is because the Single Tine Thunderbolt has a 5 port chopper.The dual tone bolt ALSO has a 5 port chopper, but to put it simple the top half is split and removed. Keeping the bottom 50% of the chopper 5 port, the new top half of the chopper is 6 ports. The same can be said for the 4/5 port models, except the top 50% is the 5 port and the bottom half is the 4 port. Also, if thunderbolts don't have their blowers (the big box that basically has an air compressor inside it) the chopper would sound like the midway airport thunderbolt as seen here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-vjGWT8jtpcw.htmlsi=39SmvN3c0TIGmGjW

Top 10 best tornadoes by Pecos Hank please he's a storm chaser with some of the best tornado footage online

New arrival: WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT? Longtime Resident: Checks watch.

I live in a small town in Southeast Colorado. We have a tornado siren that goes off everyday at noon or after a thunderstorm warning turns into a tornado warning, when the clouds start spinning.

Most days at noon the sirens are tested in my town. You get used to it.

I live across the street from a firehouse, and this video sounds like all day all night every day to me. It doesn't affect me anymore. I'm immune

i love sirens so much lol

I'm an enthusiast from the Siren Community,, and they don't scare me. I record different ones, and make different mini sirens.

Yep, sirens are scary...THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO BE! You are less likely to ignore them if they are not scary and annoying. They usually get tested once a week in the USA and even after years and years of know when and knowing the sound, it still triggers me to look up and pay attention. Still work even in today's media saturated world.

As someone who has worked in grocery stores all day long when someone’s ring doorbell ring goes off in the store everyone stops and checks to see if was their phone If you were other people it doesn’t matter if your phone is dead You will hear everybody else’s phone go off

The small town I grew up in had a GIANT air raid siren in the city water tower. It went off every night at 10 PM as a curfew warning. It was also used to call the volunteer firefighters-3 quavers = a brush fire. 7 quavers = a house fire. 10 quavers = it's really bad. In the 1980's, when pagers were introduced, the siren was dismantled and given away.

here we have them tested every wednesday at 12 unless theres any chance of a tornado. Also we just got hit with 4 tornados a week ago :D

A weather radio is better for tornadoes than tornado sirens. The service which runs on a weather radio is free.

Yeah, they are tested every Wednesday at noon.

15:40 - YES. Like I know there’s costs to consider and why they’d want to cut it but it shows some exceedingly concerning ignorance that they’ll go “well there’s phones now” as a justification to scrap like… emergency systems. I mean also consider phones getting broken or lost in an emergency disaster. I knew a noon on a Tuesday in SF better than anywhere else because of the emergency system tests every week. I dropped my phone between the bed and the wall enough to not wake up. People can silence and ignore phones. Can do that about a siren lol

In the northern suburbs of Chicago on the Tuesdays at 10 am. They are close enough that you hear it, but not so close to be annoying. There are new sirens that are now more common, and more likely to go off called a "Thorguard" or lightning sensor. Found at many baseball fields, football fields, golf courses, and soccer pitches, these warn of conditions when lightning may strike. I have been involved many times when both sirens have been effective and placed in places that before their use, many people have died from these weather conditions. The biggest weather killer in the US is lightning, not tornadoes by far.

Cincinnati Ohio......Yeah it's the first Wednesday of the month and it's noon. Just ignore it LOL

They test tornado sirens every monday at noon.. you just ignore it

you get used to them growing up in okc you hear all of them from el reno to war acres fun shit

Yes I'm used to them. Although I've only heard the single tone. It's very annoying. The deeper sounding sirens sound way cooler.

Tornado silents😅

Better that they are used for tornadoes than for if we were being invaded like WWII Europe!

The alternating wave length one does not creap me out, I just find it annoying.

Well, I don't think Nick would have made it thru the blitz! Older Brits were made of sterner stuff.

thunder bolt 1003

Why would you test on a school day? Makes no sense.