WARREN (WWJ) — Tornado sirens rang out in many Metro Detroit communities as storms swept through Sunday night — but there was no tornado.
In fact, there wasn’t even a Tornado Warning, just a Severe Thunderstorm Warning.
So, why the sirens?
According to Brandon Lewis, Director of Emergency Management for Macomb County, they activate the sirens if there’s a Tornado Warning, OR if there’s Severe Thunderstorm Warning with high wind speeds expected to reach a certain level.
“And that was the condition last night,” Lewis said, in a Monday interview with WWJ Newsradio 950’s Dan Jenkins. “They issued a severe thunderstorm warning from Macomb County about 7:20 p.m. and they were forecasting 70 mile an hour winds are greater, so we activated our sirens.”
Lewis said that “70 mph winds of greater” has been the policy in Macomb County for at least the last decade. He said other Southeast Michigan counties’ polices are similar, although the wind speed figure may vary slightly.
“But everybody tends to issue whether there’s a Tornado Warning or whether there are high level straight line winds. Because high level straight line winds can have the same intensity as a small tornado, and they can do the same type of damage,” Lewis said.
The purpose of the siren, Lewis said, is to alert people to take shelter indoors.
It doesn’t necessarily mean that people inside their homes should head to the basement.
“So, when we activate our outdoor warning sirens, what we’re really hoping to convey to people that are outdoors is that there’s a significant weather event coming and that they should seek cover and then seek more information,” Lewis said.
Was this a sort of last minute decision? Or, how far in advance of a storm’s arrival are these decisions made?
“We keep an eye on it during the day when we see that there’s a significant event coming ,we keep an eye on what’s going on,” Lewis said. “We have conversations internally and we watch for the National Weather Service to issue any products for our county like that Severe Thunderstorm Warning with the 70 mile an hour winds or a Tornado Warning and then we activate the sirens accordingly based on what we see.”
As for Sunday night’s storm, Lewis said there wasn’t much wind damage in Macomb County,
“It seems like the storm kind of de-intensified as it got to Macomb,” Lewis said. “We did get a few reports of trees down and a few power lines down, but nothing that was too significant here.”
Looking out a little further across the WWJ listening area, Metro Airport saw gusts of over 60-miles-per-hour, while officials at Jackson Airport measured winds around 90 miles-per-hour. All of that led to downed power lines, fallen tree branches, and even some uprooted trees in the hardest-hit area.
As of 1 p.m. on Monday, DTE Energy said there were about 19,300 homes and businesses without power across Metro Detroit, and estimated that everyone would be back on the grid by the end of the day.
DTE said, in a statement: “Our crews are working as quickly and safely as possible to restore power to everyone impacted by Sunday’s severe thunderstorms and high winds. Our Storm Response Team is laser focused on turning the lights back on for all customers affected by the storm because we know how challenging it is to be without electric service.”
As always, the public is urged never to touch, and to stay at least 25 feet from any downed wires.
There’s more severe weather in the forecast for Metro Detroit this week, with the AccuWeather forecast calling for rain, high winds and a threat of tornadoes possible on Wednesday. Stay with WWJ for updates, every 10 minutes on the 8s. >>LISTEN LIVE!!
