I never thought something that was intended to warn us of imminent destruction could so sound so peaceful against the calm wind and chirping of the birds.
this sounds just about like how it used to be in northwest arkansas. That eerie harmony that immediately got your attention and you KNEW nature was ticked off and to hit a shelter. Had one of these on the corner of where i used to live as a youngin in the 80s. One night my folks were just coming back from a shopping trip, around 5pm and the sky was pitch black. No cell phones, no internet just lots of rain, thunder lightning then...this siren went off. It was so loud it rattled the window in the duplex, and i grabbed covers and a pillow and hid out in my closet..then the power went out and i flipped out. I was..maybe 9 or 10. i remember finding the courage to find a flashlight and listen for a roar/high winds. Luckily about the time that my mind was playing tricks on me my folks pulled up and mom bolted like lightning towards me making sure i was okay. Tornado passed less than a mile where we were. that siren saved a lot of lives that night.
my grandpa lived in northwest arkansas in the early 70s… there were so many tornadoes where he was that he just got acclimated and now that we live in missouri any time theres a tornado he just goes to bed and sleeps through it
@@MicrowaveBakedPotato nah should be “tornado emergency for (location) the national weather service in (location), has issued a tornado warning for (10 different counties)
@@RockyThePupsGamingChannel 5/6 port thunderbolt, chopper 4, service drive 5/6 port thunderbolt, chopper 5, salter park 5/6 port thunderbolt, chopper 6, veterans memorial park 4/5 port thunderbolt, chopper 5, lochmoor golf course and country club, sirens from grosse pointe woods, MI, and Harper woods, MI
Growing up in the metro area of Detroit, didn’t truly feel like something I had lived through until 5 years ago when I realized what I was hearing all those years ago. This synth not only brings nostalgia, it brings back the memories I had listening to this very system including my own which was Whelens and a Model 5. To add on to this, Harper Woods would’ve sounded a little more different than this, I will tell you those things were pretty loud for what they were back in the day, it’s hard to believe it will almost be 20 years soon since I heard them, it’s just surreal how time flies like that. At least one of these awesome thunderbolts is in the hands of a well known Michigan siren enthusiast now.
Crazy how the school that I went to in NC had a deactivated Thunderbolt siren right next to the theater, yet they relied on nearby Modulators and radio broadcasts for storm warnings!
StarWarsTrains it always goes back to what I say, why did they decide these really affective sounding sirens with good range and affective sound were not good enough? And that for some reason these modern day high pitched sounding cheaper sirens are better?
This is about as close as you can get to what it sounded like in most of Louisville on the second Tuesday of every month without actually having experienced it. The sound fills the air, and you are literally surrounded by it. Recently, Thunderbolts have been getting replaced by 2001s or Whelens. There are still some Thunderbolts and 3T22s, but the way they are run, now, abridges the wind down. And when they are in Attack, it literally sounds like they wind up and down with each wail instead of a continuous wail.
Another Louisville person! I remember as a kid it sounded just like this we were surrounded by 3 Tbolts that All were equally spread out so we were right in the middle, until 2014 the first one one decommissioned then the 2nd fell in 2017 both replaced with 2001-130’s
5/6 port thunderbolt, chopper 4, service drive 5/6 port thunderbolt, chopper 5, salter park 5/6 port thunderbolt, chopper 6, veterans memorial park 4/5 port thunderbolt, chopper 5, lochmoor golf course and country club, sirens from grosse point woods, MI, and Harper woods, MI
You should note to self that Danielle pretty much lived a lot longer than you and has known about michigan sirens for a very very long time. She was there when all of those sirens were installed and were uninstalled. The story that she tells are pretty interesting, with no doubt it made want to miss and wish Michigan still had those older sirens. She told me when we were at the Harper Woods High School in you guessed it "Harper Woods", she tells me when the Thunderbolts were still around she would pass by the service drive I guess a bit more frequently than any other siren in that city. But she tells me whenever she passes by it she just pictures the service drive thunderbolt being there, it's i guess you could say it touches my heart a little bit and is a very interesting story
@@VirtualSimulations-Sirens1954B I do the same thing with Shelden Park and Emerson Middle School cause I have lots of memories about those two that I'll never forget. Sometimes, I even have dreams about them.
@@Siren1000T1 I'll be honest, I've had the same thing. I've had dreams of the old Systems when they were still a thing, Harper Woods happens pretty rarely since I really haven't known them that much when they went off for a siren test but I knew what they still sounded like.
@SPC Ranger 00 FS stopped making the thunderbolt siren since 1990 not 2002 and the thunderbolts that was based off of this are gone except one which is located at the Lochmoor Country Club in Grosse Pointe Woods, Michigan
A very beautiful, eerie, and hypnotic Thunderbolt ambience. Music to my ears. Thunderbolts are also one of my favorite sirens. I can also hear a 4/5 port Thunderbolt.
I'd love to hear the Thunderbolt atop the White Bear Lake fire station. Knowing my luck, it's going to be taken down in July when I have the first Wednesday of that month off.
Somewhere between Grosse Point Woods and Harper Woods Michigan. Sirens heard 5/6 port Thunderbolt 1000T on Chopper Level 4, at I-94 Service Drive 5/6 port Thunderbolt 1000T on Chopper Level 5, at Salter Park 5/6 port Thunderbolt 1000T on Chopper Level 6 at Veterans Memorial Park 4/5 port Thunderbolt 1000T on Chopper Level 5, at Lochmoor Golf Course and Country club. Currently, all 5/6 port Thunderbolts have been replaced, with 2001-130's, however, the 4/5 port Thunderbolt 1000T still stands. I should update as of September of 2019, the blower has died on the 4/5 1000T at GPW. The siren's fate is unknown.
Chopper level refers to the pitch of the siren's sound output. The higher the chopper level, the higher the pitch of the sound. As for 5/6 port, it refers to the chopper as well. thesirenchronicle.weebly.com/siren-anatomy.html
Hard to tell Michigan did have lots of different port/chopper level thunderbolts in the same city/township. West bloomfield, Highland, Clarkston, Pontiac, and Detroit, etc.
"The National Weather Service has issued a Tornado Warning for Dallas County. This is a Tornado Emergency. A massive EF6 has been spotted and is bearing down on Dallas. Take cover now." *EOM Tones*
As someone who's lived in a town with multiple thunderbolt sirens and especially one like right beside my school, I can say hearing the ambient siren just wail is absolutely terrifying. Even now as an 15 year old I get scared hearing them.
It's from a vantage point somewhere in between Harper Woods and Grosse Point Woods, MI, back when HW had their old system. That is so awesome, feels like I'm there lol.
murrfarms ikr? I nevef heard the old system, now im super sad that west shlre services replaced them all except the 4/5. My first thunderbolt i wanted to hear from them was the service drive thunderbolt. Now its gone. 😔
@@sirensofsoutheastmichigan Salter Park is now privately owned by some siren enthusiast who recorded it back in 2007 and and the rest are most likely scrapped unless their still laying around those trailers in their junkyard
My Grandma said back then that there was no doubt the sirens weren't going to go off or not they just went, but now its sorta different and confusing now so
Harper Woods, MI. I'm positive! Service Drive Thunderbolt on level 4, Salter Park Thunderbolt on level 5, Veterans Memorial Park Thunderbolt on level 6, and 4/5 port thunderbolt at Lochmoor on level 5!
Only 1950s American kids will remember. Edit: I'm well aware that the Federal Signal Thunderbolt series was made from 1952-1990, and that the Cold War lasted from 1947-1991. Since I originally wrote this comment years ago, I guess I was trying to imply that people back then would've remembered hearing this often, and were always living in constant fear of nuclear war. Though this might clear up some confusion in the replies.
This would be the old Harper Woods, Michigan system. I used to live up here before I moved to Milwaukee. This was the system we had. I loved these sirens, and I love how I can recognize every single one. The lowest one was the one at Salter Woods, one my favorite sirens ever. I miss these sirens.
The lowest one was actually on Country Club street next to a Service drive, the one you’re talking about was located about a mile in a half south on 94. I also lived close to this area and heard all 3 growing up. I still live in the area and happy to hear the 4/5 port thunderbolt is still in operation.
I remember being a kid in Lansing, Michigan and thinking this was the most horrific sound I'd ever heard. We had the Thunderbolt 1000T's all over the city, mostly in school parking lots. From our house you could hear three or four of them, exactly like this soundtrack! The sound of a 1000T still sends chills up my spine, and I'm now 47 and living in Fort Worth, Texas. Thanks for keeping these old beasts alive and well on the Net. Brings back a lot of memories....
Try having one of these nasty SOB's practically *in your yard.* Granted, it might have been a football field or so away, but it is the scariest thing in the world to be woken up out of a dead sleep by a Thunderbolt THAT close to your house. O_O That said, the modern ones are nowhere near this loud and menacing...and I think it might be a good idea to make the modern ones meaner just to make sure the point is 100% clear.
@@Ultimate2T22 Usually attack mode is when there is either a tornado spotted on the ground or a tornado emergency, when the tornado is a large damaging tornado, maybe EF2 or greater.
This is an amazing synth! If I did not know it is a synth, I would say it is true! When I am listening to these calm, peacful siren ambiences, I always get sad that many T-Bolts are now removed, and here in Hungary, many of the old DS977s will never sound again...
Tornado warnings in the 70's, 80's, 90's. If you were old enough to remember them. I do. I am almost 42 years old and I was traumatized by these same sounds June 3, 1980 when we had 7 tornadoes hit our area. I was only 2 years old. Try living with that! I commiserate with those who grew up on TBolt's and didn't like the sound. Nighttime is especially scary.
well when they where produced during the civil defense days , they where used as civil defense sirens to alert the population of an air raid .Now there used as Tornado Tsunami , and fire sirens .
Minneapolis and St.Paul had Thunderbolt sirens until a few years ago.They were replaced with newer Federal Signal 2001 sirens,but they don't sound quite as distinct as this.
This used to sound like Oahu during the monthly test (first state working day of the month, 11:45am). The test used to consist of a 45-second alert tone followed by one minute of silence then 45 seconds of the attack warning signal. It's now just a 45-second alert tone, and most of the Thunderbolts on the island have been replaced by Modulators.
+SoundMaster 391 During the 80s, they used to do the alert signal, silence, then the attack one. Sometime in the late 90s, they stopped testing the attack signal, but kicked around the idea of starting it up again after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2001/Oct/14/ln/ln06a.html
+SoundMaster 391 With North Korea's recent rhetoric about launching a missile that could hit here, I wonder if they'll consider testing the attack warning signal again. Haven't seen anything new since the 2001 article though. Either way the siren ambience isn't the same, at least not in my area (a nearby T'bolt was replaced by a Modulator back in 2011, shortly after the March tsunami warning).
The birds and nature ambience make this more scary it actually makes you think ur running to your car trying to escape a tornado or something and its all humid and there is a gray sky and you hear thunder and then it slowly starts to rain as you see more and more drops of water hit the ground. Kind of specific i know Its because i had the same experience.
@@Bzons the 2001 SRN is actually somewhat the thunderbolt or at least some parts of it just not all of it. Although I disagree it would become a bunch of 2001 parts because the 2001 siren isn't all what's out there you know.
@@DeadChan67thunderbolt sirens would’ve been hella more expensive by todays standards as they were made with way more part and required more maintenance than the 2001-130. Remember the 2001-130 runs on 1 motor singe phase, the thunderbolt siren or at least most were on 3 working motors plus 3 phase power.
I would guess Louisville because it's one of the few cities that's still loaded with Thunderbolts but the ones in Louisville are lower pitched than this and you would hear a lot more of them.
I'm going with Louisville, too. Raised here since I was an infant, and this sounds like the siren ambiance during a test of the system or a tornado warning...at least until a lot of the Thunderbolts were being replaced with Mods and 2001s.
I take it back. It sounds like Louisville, but Louisville rarely ever did an Attack mode test to the best of my knowledge. I've heard the city test in Attack mode after an Alert mode test a couple times, and the first time I can remember hearing it, I think it was done in error. Plus now wind downs are cut off essentially in Louisville's system, and Attack mode sounds more like the sirens winding up and winding back down completely with each wail instead of it being continuous.
Guys, its based off of four Thunderbolt 1000T's in Harper Woods, and neighboring Grosse Point Woods, Michigan. Three 5/6 port Thunderbolts on chopper levels 4, 5, and 6, and then another Thunderbolt, 4/5 port, chopper level 5. There are videos of all four sirens on RU-vid. :)
At my school we can hear about 4 thunderbolts and everyone knows what they sound like. One kid played this on a day that we had a severe t-storm warning and it freaked everyone out. he was suspended yet the next day, one kid got to the office and turned on the intercom and put his phone by it playing this video i still dont know how the office thought it was real, i guess because they have an intercom speaker in the room that they talk over it in making it sound like an ambiance. he also bought a white case that matched the wall. The whole school went into tornado mode, we were in a tornado watch that day too and it was pouring outside
This is really good synth audio. My home town of Waterloo, IA had Thunderbolts. The one we had a block down didn't scare me. It was the distant Thunderbolts I could hear that really scared me for some reason. Now, it's nostalgic and actually beautiful.
@Siren1000T1 I sure miss them too. When I'm older, I will go to federal signal corporation and say, Hey! You got to put those t bolts back in service!!!!! There so loud they are great for warning a whole community!!
What if the power goes out, and the Thunderbolt's Shuts off but we need battery backup but they are useless they use so much voltage to wear the battery's down.
I agree. We in Kansas City used to have Thunderbolts everywhere until about 2003. From personal experience, a Thunderbolt will wake me from a deep sleep. I can barely hear the Federal Signal sirens and there is one a block away. Honestly, they just need to replicate the sounds of the Thunderbolts. They were absolutely terrifying but highly effective! Just my .02¢
Imagine if you heard this while a 16+ mile wide megawedge tornado with wind speeds upwards of 550 was going straight for your town. And then these sirens cut out because they get completely uprooted and instantly granulated. Scary things to think about are sometimes fun.
Wow, I live in Scottsbluff Nebraska and this is exactly what our system of Thunderbolt 1003 sirens sound like ( only had 5, town isn't very big and now are down to 4 Tbolts)
Since this is alert and attack, for testing, its not creepy, but if I heard this at 3am for tornado warning, I would freak out and find this ambience creepy
