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Dickinson County Changing Protocol In Sounding Sirens For Severe Weather

March 27, 2023 Steve Schwaller

(Undated)– This week marks the observance of Severe Weather Awareness Week in the state of Iowa. Dickinson County Emergency Management Coordinator Mike Ehret says one big change this upcoming season is in the protocol that will be used when activating sirens in Dickinson county for severe weather…

“In the past it was 75 mph winds. If that was included in the warning text we would activate the sirens for that, along with tornado warnings, of course, either a tornado warning or a tornado spotted. This year we’re going to adjust it just a bit to match that WEA criteria that I mentioned. So 80 mph winds, or baseball size hail. I know it’s a little different, people aren’t used to sirens going off for hail but if you have baseball size coming you definitely want to be indoors in a sturdy shelter and so we want to match our siren criteria with the Wireless Emergency Alert criteria that’s out there nationwide.”

Ehret also reminds everyone those sirens are intended as OUTDOOR warning devices only. While the county has an extensive network of the sirens, Ehret says chances are you aren’t going to hear them from indoors. That’s why it’s important to have other means of getting severe weather alerts. We’ll have more on that later in the week.

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