Statewide Tornado Siren Testing

ZANESVILLE, OH – The statewide testing of tornado sirens is set to start Wednesday.

Jeff Jadwin, the Muskingum County Emergency Management Agency Director, said the statewide test will begin at 9:50AM and then will sound every Wednesday until we’re out of the severe weather season.

He said starting on Wednesday March 26th, Muskingum County will resume the weekly testing of the sirens at Noon.

Jadwin said they will only test the sirens if the weather is clear and there isn’t a threat of severe weather.

“If it’s raining lightly it’s still going to happen,” Jadwin said. “But if we’re under a severe thunderstorm watch or a tornado watch, we’re not going to set them off. The other thing to say, when we are under a tornado warning, the policy we have through our office is, if the National Weather Service just issues a warning for the Northern half of the county, our policy with sheriff dispatch is we set off the sirens because that storm could move in a different direction quickly.”

Jadwin said in the event of severe weather, they will sound the sirens for about three minutes at a time, then take around 10 minutes to check for warnings or watches, and that’s when they’ll decide if they need to sound the alarm again.

He also said if you’d like to stay up to date on the weather conditions and warnings for our area, you can sign up for alerts from the Reverse 911 alert system.

“We’ve got the reverse 911 system, especially for tornadoes,” Jadwin said. “When you opt into our system, I can’t force you to join, if people want to join, especially with cell phones and not having landlines today. I don’t give you an option about getting tornado warnings, that’s an automatic, all the other warnings you can choose what you want, what you don’t want, there is an option where you can do daytime only or you can do 24 hours.”

To register for the Reverse 911 alert system you can head to www.muskingumcountyoh.gov, under the Agencies tab, and select EMA/LEPC to bring up the form.