What do sirens in your area warn of?

[FederalSignalDude]

The siren system in the area I live in sound off in Hi-Lo and Attack,(for single tone sirens), for fires, and Alert for Severe Weather and Flooding.

[TommyBNSF]

In my hometown of Morris, IL, our sirens are owned by Exelon Nuclear (T-128s, 2 T-135s, and a P-50), so their main purpose is for warning people if something is wrong with the nuke plant, although 99% of the time they're used for tornado warnings. We also have an STH-10 that was used for fire calls, however, has stood dormant for the past 10 years or less (I don't remember when they stopped using it exactly.)

In my work town of Sandusky OH and the rest of Erie County, we have 2001-SRNBs that are just used for tornado warnings (as far as I know). Nearby Ottawa County is home to other 2001s owned by Davis Besse Nuclear so they're used for nuclear warnings and most likely tornado warnings as well. There are no fire sirens in Erie County I believe.

[Mark N]

The siren system in the area I live in sound off in Hi-Lo and Attack,(for single tone sirens), for fires, and Alert for Severe Weather and Flooding.

What county is that?

[FederalSignalDude]

It's Morris County, NJ. My friend told me that in south Morris there's a 3T22 that runs for a FD, but I never recalled seeing a 3T22. So he was probably just busting my chops or just being a complete idiot.

[vacuumcleaner]

Kalamazoo county MI - Alert for monthly tests and tornado warnings.

[07VFDInLCD]

Ardmore, OK (Carter County). We have no testing of the sirens here. It seems like that the city used to test each week, but that was with their older system of ASC RM-130s. When they upgraded to the T-128 sirens, they changed the testing schedule to the fourth Friday of each month, but have since stopped testing completely. Our current system consists of 15 ASC T-128s. The current system is used for tornado warnings, and the alert signal is what they sound off in. There have been occasions where maintenance is performed on a siren, and the last time I saw one was at the T-128 located at Travertine & Kings Rd. As far as I know, the growl signal is used during maintenance testing.

Oh, and that same siren has sounded a fast wail signal before, but I don't know what for. The ASC RM-130 on the Ardmore Police Department was part of the old system. That RM-130 may actually be active and tied into the current system, since it has rotated sometime between 2013 and 2018. The picture attached is an updated photo of the RM-130, taken on May 22, 2021.

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EDIT (2019): I just accidently discovered another siren in the city. Now there are a total of 11 T-128s and one RM-130 that I believe is still used.

EDIT 2 (3-7-2022): Every single siren in the current system has been found and plotted.

[Stag]

Our system is all 2001s as of right now. I believe the system exclusively warns of tornadoes, and during storm season they are silent tested. After a pretty horrible tornado destroyed a huge portion of this town, as well as killing many people who didn't take the warning seriously/were numb to sirens sounding because it was often a false alarm, measures have been taken to limit exposure to the sound so one doesn't build up an immunity.

I grew up in a small town in upstate NY! And all the sirens were omnidirectional and the bulk of them were fire station sirens. There are two that appear inactive and their purpose is unknown, but I suspect they were from the cold war era since that city was apparently a significant target at that time.
One of the fire sirens would sound for a noon whistle every day for many years!
And one creepy foggy day, an STL-10 sounded in attack and was audible from my house. I still don't know at all what it was warning for, but it was pretty awesome to hear. There's 2 STL-10s in the area, one of them being a fire siren and the other an apparently abandoned cold war, like I said. The cold war one is closer and likely more audible, which is interesting, meaning it is likely still in use? For what, I don't know!

Both of these towns are also college towns and both have sirens on campus to warn in case of dangerous incident like shooting events. One is a Modulator and the other is an ATI

[TBoyer1999]

As far as I know, my county's (Kosciusko County, IN) sirens only go off for tornado warnings and sound off twice annually for the Indiana Statewide Tornado Drill in March. There is no fixed testing schedule.

There are fire sirens in the county that sound off for a noon blast daily or weekly, but they do also go off for tornado warnings.

[oliveoil22]

San Anselmo, CA: Not really a siren, but a diaphone at the city hall warns of floods. When the neighbouring town, Fairfax, hears this diaphone, they sound off their 2001-130.

[Darley Champion]

It's more or less various in France, from chemical plants (especially in Lyon where the "Chemistry corridor" is located) to nuclear plants...


Before that, dating all the way back to WWIi, the sirens were used for bombing warnings, but now they fell out of use.