RoJo--while a tornado cannot turn into a hurricane, it sounds like what you're afraid of is a
derecho. I've been through a bad derecho and it was indeed worse than two tropical storms I've been through. People were pissed because no one set off the tornado sirens when it was coming. So what if it wasn't a tornado? 100-mph straight line winds damn well deserve a warning!
What do you do?
Do you seek shelter? Do you ignore it and go about your business?
In theory, when the tornado sirens go off, it's not just a warning. It means an actual funnel cloud has formed and touched down somewhere. However, I get so used to hearing them this time of year that I really don't do anything about it.
I look at the window to see if I can spot anything, and then I just continue going about my day.
When tornado sirens go off where I live, unless it's test day, it means a tornado is indicated
on Doppler and the National Weather Service has issued a warning. It does not necessarily mean that a trained spotter has actually seen a funnel cloud or that anything has touched down.
The first thing I do is check on TV or on the radio to see where the problem is. A lot of times, the sirens go off for things that are not in your area, though that's not as frequent now that the National Weather Service is issuing warnings in polygons instead of setting off the entire county at once.
I also check then, when I look at the radar, for anything in
addition to whatever triggered the siren, that could do so soon, and is headed for wherever I am. At least in my own county, I know the weather patterns well enough that I have a pretty good idea what's going to come for my town and what won't. Sometimes I have a pretty good idea of what's
about to trigger a tornado warning as well as what already has.
Once I've got all the information,
then I decide what to do. If it's not in my area, I'll go about my business. If something looks like it's heading my way, I'll watch the radar until it starts getting close and then take shelter if necessary.
When driving...I actually had this happen recently when I was starting a long road trip and got chased for 90 miles by tornado sirens. I turned on the radio and listened to where they said the storms were, then called someone to check the radar for me. When I found out where the bad part of the storm was (behind me), and heard on the radio how fast the storm was moving (slower than highway speeds), I started doing about 80 down the interstate.
In one case, we had a tornado touch down in my city. My dad had dropped by...he used to do storm spotting for the police when he was a teenager, and also has a lot of meteorology courses, so he decided we were going to get in our cars and outrun the tornado. Normally I would never, EVER do that, but given that he
really knows his stuff, I felt safe doing it.
I am more nervous about storms in areas
without sirens. I had the misfortune of living in a rural area once with no sirens, and damn...if I'd known that when I moved in, I would've bought an emergency radio, no ifs, ands, or buts! Sometimes on stormy days I used to go into town so I wouldn't get caught flat-footed. At least for that time--thank God I don't sleep through thunderstorms, so I would've at least stood a chance of hearing something coming.
But for the other extreme...way back when I was little, there was one place we lived where it would scare the HELL out of me every time a tornado warning happened, and I would pretty much freak out. We had one of these bad boys literally less than a block from the house. Practically in our backyard. And you haven't heard a truly MEAN siren until you've heard a Thunderbolt.
(Go to 1:25 on
this video. Careful with the volume; I'm not kidding when I say this thing is mean.)
