Severe weather is expected when winter comes to a close in the Midwest. Weather sirens are set off within the city of Monmouth and surrounding communities to warn residents to seek shelter. While you may know the siren for a tornado warning, Monmouth Fire Chief Casey Rexroat says sirens are set for other severe weather events, including hail:
“One of the things that people don’t realize is one of the reasons we set them off for is hail. If we have hail that is golf ball size or larger, we consider that to be a pretty serious, dangerous event. So we set off those storm sirens to make sure that everybody outside, moves inside. A couple other reasons we set off the storm sirens are for wind that is 70 miles per hour or more. We consider that to be like the hail, not necessarily a tornado, but it is a dangerous event. And then obviously a tornado warning. The thing with tornado warnings is a lot of people ask when we have a tornado warning say in Warren County, why are we not setting off sirens for the entire county. A lot of that is because the tornado warning, they become a lot more accurate with where they believe the path of the tornado will go, and so we usually just set off the sirens in that path.”
To further be aware of severe weather, Chief Rexroat recommends utilizing a weather radio, downloading weather apps onto your phone that will alert you, and also turning on your local news stations.
**Written by WMOI/WRAM Director of Communications Kelsey Crain**
