COLUMBUS – From now on, if you hear a tornado warning siren in Franklin County at any other time than the weekly test at noon on Wednesday, ask not for whom the siren sounds. It sounds for thee.
Franklin County Emergency Management and Homeland Security, which has traditionally activated the sirens county-wide when the National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for any part of the county, will divide the county into quadrants and only turn on sirens for the area likely to be affected by the tornado, said director Jeffrey Young.
“By dividing the county into four zones, this will reduce the likelihood of sirens operating in areas of the county that are not within the actual warning area,” he said.
The change was brought about by improvements in weather forecasting technology, which allows meteorologists to pinpoint a smaller area that is in a twister’s path, said Young.
The policy will divide the county into four warning zones – Northwest, Northeast, Southwest and Southeast (see map above) — based upon the based at the intersection of Broad and Highstreets downtown. Using the four zones will allow the warning system the flexibility to more closely align siren activations with warnings or the actual location of tornadic activity, Young said.
The agency recently compared its procedures with a variety of practices developed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency other agencies throughout the country.
Along with enhanced weather forecasting technology, Young says his agency took into consideration that in 2007, the weather service began issuing weather warnings that were intended to more accurately reflect local conditions or the likelihood of severe weather in a more specific location.
The new siren policy will take effect next week as part of Ohio’s Spring Severe Weather Awareness Week (March 18-24) which is meant to remind Ohioans that with the arrival of spring comes an increased opportunity for severe weather.