[megs517]

As far as I was told the siren is tested the first Saturday of every month at 10am..... I heard it the other weekend at exactly that time, so I'm pretty sure my source was correct!!

[a42887]

Originally Posted by ehenningsen

The sirens ARE to be sounded to be heard in every corner of the county as Dave mentioned..

Just FYI, this is not true any longer for the warning system as a whole. The NWS now issues what are called Polygon Based Warnings, and while they will alert and list counties, sirens and weather radios will not sound unless you are within the polygon they issue the warning for. See the following page for an explanation (this is in effect nationwide, but the Indianapolis website describes it best in their initial release article).

Storm Based Warnings

Now, that being said, the Valley NWS does issue warnings for Douglas County a little differently than the rest of the area it serves. If a storm is anticipated to hit any part of the City of Omaha or its connected suburbs, they will sound the sirens for the entire city. However, if a storm clips say the Northwest corner up by Valley or Waterloo, and there is no indication that it is reasonable to expect it to move towards Omaha, they will only issue the warning for the area and leave the rest of Omaha out of it. This basically cuts down on bugging people not affected, which may cause people to become accustomed to the warnings thus causing them to ignore them. See this map of Cherry County, Nebraska for a poster child of why this is needed.

Moderator cut: link to a competitors site removed

As you can see, it is the size of many small states. The sixth county from the bottom on the east side of the state is Douglas County (Omaha) for a size comparison.

[tpabes]

Thanks for posting that, I have noticed them doing the warnings with the polygon and being more specific with the areas.

[a42887]

Yeah, it really helps in so many different ways. Most of the TV stations have switched here, but one (I can't remember who) doesn't reflect the polygons yet.

[Dave1215]

Originally Posted by a42887

Yeah, it really helps in so many different ways. Most of the TV stations have switched here, but one (I can't remember who) doesn't reflect the polygons yet.

Really makes sense since the tornadoes generally follow a predictable path (once they are identified).... with the county wide warnings that we've grown up with it alot of locals tended to ignore the warnings... with the shift to the polygon I'll probably pay more attention (but will still go out and look at the sky - love those clouds during the storms.