Hamilton County Emergency Management has adopted a revised policy concerning use of outdoor emergency sirens to notify Hamilton County residents of severe weather. Effective August 1, outdoor sirens in Hamilton County will be activated under one of four conditions:

1. If the National Weather Service issues a Tornado Warning for all or part of Hamilton County, outdoor sirens will be activated for that part of the county under the warning;

2. If a funnel cloud or tornado is identified by trained public safety personnel;

3. At the discretion of the Emergency Operations Center staff or, based on storm spotter reports, in the event of a straight line wind event causing damage; or,

4. At the request of a municipal official such as a Mayor, Police Chief, or Fire Chief.

Activation of the outdoor sirens during for any of these reasons will be done on a 5 minute on, 5 minute off rotation for the duration of the emergency. Outdoor sirens are owned and maintained by local municipalities so if one part of a municipality is under siren activation then all outdoor sirens in that county will be activated.

Hamilton County Emergency Management would like to take this opportunity to remind residents that emergency sirens are intended to warn people who are outside, not those who are indoors. Residents are encouraged to purchase weather alert radios, tune in to local media, or download smart phone applications to stay informed during potential severe weather events.

Testing of outdoor emergency sirens in Hamilton County will continue each Friday morning at 11:00am unless the temperature is below 32 degrees or in the event of potential bad weather.