Tornado sets off sirens for first time
The EF0 tornado that touched down March 24 near the Garland-Saline county line initiated the first activation of the new system of tornado sirens the city began installing in 2014, the Hot Springs Fire Department said earlier this week.
A National Weather Service tornado warning first activated the sirens from 10:01 to 10:05 p.m. They emitted an air horn sound followed by a warning message, a wail, another message and a final wail. The second activation occurred from 10:08 to 10:11 p.m., sounding a warning message followed by a wail, another message and a final wail.
The fire department said sirens located inside polygons the NWS places on maps to outline the path of expected storm damage automatically activate. The polygon the NWS’ Little Rock office placed over Garland County activated seven of the city’s 11 tornado sirens.
According to the NWS, the tornado’s 1.4-mile storm path was north of the city and two to three miles south-southeast of Fountain Lake. Sirens at Hill Wheatley Plaza, the Arlington Resort Hotel and Spa, Ozark Street, Holly Street and the Weyerhaeuser offices on Whittington Avenue were all activated.
The Linwood Street siren was the farthest south of the seven activated, and the Crescent Street siren the farthest east. The fire department said the sirens emit nine distinct tones: wail, attack, alert, public address, air horn, hi lo, whoop, Westminster Chimes and the Arkansas Razorback Fight Song. Their sound radius is dependent on their height.
“If you hear a siren, especially during a weather event, you should turn on your weather radio,” Fire Chief Ed Davis said. “If you don’t have a weather radio, turn on the TV to get the information you need.”
The fire department can manually turn on the sirens using the Weather Warn computer at its emergency operations center
in the Central Station at 310 Broadway Ave. The city has never manually activated the new system, the fire department said. A tornado warning, chemical accident, emergency evacuation, flash flood, emergency announcement, hazardous material release or severe weather warning are circumstances that could prompt a manual activation.
The city appropriated $75,445 earlier this month to add two new sirens to the warning system.
The short-lived tornado warning the NWS issued Thursday night for the northern half of Garland County didn’t activate the sirens. Meteorologist Sean Clarke of the Little Rock NWS office said the warning was issued at 10:30 p.m. and expired at 10:41 p.m.
The Little Rock office’s radar detected rotation at more than 5,000 feet above Lake Ouachita, Clarke said, noting that’s the lowest elevation the radar can scan.
“It didn’t last very long,” Clarke said. “It spun up quickly on radar. We can’t see below 5,000 feet, but at that level the storm was rotating. Based on the ingredients of the atmosphere, conditions were ripe for a tornado. The best spinning was over Lake Ouachita, but we haven’t heard any reports of damage.”