Overnight on June 16th into June 17th, 2014, there was a storm system that moved through Clinton and surrounding counties. The Clinton County Outdoor Warning Sirens were not activated for this weather event and this has caused some confusion. For severe weather events, there are several triggers that would cause us to activate the Outdoor Warning Sirens. Read more about the ‘triggers’ for the sirens in this clarification for the public from the Clinton County Emergency Management Agency or listen to this story in the KROS NEWS for more comments and clarifications
These triggers are:
A Severe Thunderstorm Warning with warned winds of 70 miles per hour or greater, issued by the National Weather Service
A Tornado Warning issued by the National Weather Service
A tornado spotted and reported by a trained weather spotter
The Outdoor Warning Sirens may also be activated if there are reports of significant damage occurring due to the weather, or reports of life threatening conditions outside.
Overnight June 16th into the 17th, there were several Severe Thunderstorm Warnings issued for Clinton County by the National Weather Service. None of those warnings included 70 mile an hour wind or greater. This is why the sirens were not activated. We began to receive reports of damage after the storm had passed, too late to activate the Outdoor Warning Sirens.
As a reminder, the Outdoor Warning Sirens are intended to warn people who are outside that it is not safe to be outdoors. When sirens are activated it simply means it is not safe outside, go inside. Once inside, residents are encouraged to find out more information about why the sirens were activated. Outdoor Warning Sirens are not designed to warn people in their homes of impending danger. Weather radios, cell phones, television, and internet are all ways to receive warnings inside the home.
Please direct any questions or concerns to Chance Kness, Clinton County Emergency Management
