Advisory: Emergency Sirens

Emergency Shelter Sirens - Formerly known as "Tornado Sirens", these sirens should not be thought of as limited to Tornados.

It is best to think of the sirens as EMERGENCY SHELTER SIRENS that are directing you to take shelter and seek additional information. There are several situation where the sirens could be activated that may not be the result of a tornado. During the early morning hours of 05/16/2017 at approximately 2:45 AM the sirens were sounded in Minneota for a severe thunderstorm warning that had the potential of 60MPH winds and 1.25 inch hail.

While this is a significant storm the sirens were not supposed to have been activated.

The current criteria for use of the emergency sirens are:

01: 70MPH+ winds.

02: Tornado indicated by radar.

03: Tornado witnessed by a trained observer.

04: At the discretion of Law Enforcement.

Although the sirens should not have been activated for this morning's storm and s ome of us lost some sleep after being awoken; I glad to know that there is a dispatcher watching over Minneota as we sleep and I would rather have a thousand false alarms than to miss one real alarm resulting in a death. Going forward I encourage everyone to think of the sirens as a "TAKE SHELTER WARNING".

Once you have taken shelter you can then investigate as to why the sirens were sounded to determine what you should do next.

Chief Bill Bolt