Montgomery EMA upgrades to location-specific outdoor siren warning system
MONTGOMERY, AL (WSFA) - The Montgomery EMA has made a major upgrade to it severe weather warning system. It's now location-specific.
Those outdoor sirens now will go off only in areas affected by a weather alert, instead of county-wide. So, if the National Weather Service (NWS) issues a tornado warning that affects only south Montgomery County, outdoor sirens would sound only in that area.
The Montgomery County outdoor sirens use a grid system. When the NWS issues a weather warning, the system will automatically identify which grids are affected and activate sirens in those grids only.
"If any portion of that polygon covers it, then everyone will be alerted on that system," said Christina Thornton, Director of the Motngomery EMA. "So it can be half of the county if that's involved, or just a particular portion of just north Montgomery County."
If you have a weather radio, the National Weather Service will still activate the weather radios county-wide.
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