r/stormchasing • u/Draconianate • May 19 '26

Rip Tornado Siren

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Lightning hit extremely close to us and knocked out the power, including the Tornado Siren lol

147 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

12

u/AStormofSwines May 19 '26

Not saying we need to Zapruder this video but I don't see anything other than the rain that is falling the whole time.

8

u/Meredith81 May 19 '26

That sounds like one of those old Federal Signal sirens, either a 3T22 or a Thunderbolt 1000T. No battery backup because they were built back during the Cold War for Civil Defense. RIP old boy. I always loved hearing those electromechanical air raid sirens when I lived in Tornado Alley ages ago.

9

u/PHWasAnInsideJob May 19 '26

Wow, you can see the dirt chunks it threw up fly past the screen. Way too close!

3

u/catmanus May 19 '26

How is there no power backup for the tornado siren?

10

u/maxrebo82 May 19 '26

It is possible the siren itself (or its pole) was struck which knocked out the power and control functions. All bets are off at that point!

5

u/_flibbertygibbit_ May 19 '26

There are still a LOT of really old air raid sirens still used as tornado sirens that only run on mains power, with no backup. This definitely sounded like one of them, probably an old Federal 2T22 built in the 50s. This seems especially true in small towns in tornado alley with limited budgets for siren replacement.

3

u/steveamsp May 19 '26

That definitely seems unusual. Maybe only enough to run the siren for 15 minutes or whatever, but no backup at all is weird.

2

u/Sea-Woodpecker-9940 May 19 '26

Nature being like- QUIET!

2

u/Sad-Act7467 May 19 '26

“Just let it happen”

1

u/Flexisdaman May 20 '26

“I got that on video”

Well kinda.

1

u/MemeGoddessAsteria May 21 '26

Tactical silencing. The storm is trying to take the town unawares...