Wow, every Wednesday? Up in Oakland Co, ours are only tested on the first Saturday of every month during tornado season. On test day it's a bit of a chore as officers are posted to make sure the sirens are all working. What's worse is that people will still call wondering if there's a tornado (which the police department is not likely to know) or if "we're under attack."
Fortunately, I don't think I've heard one sounded for a storm in the last 10 years.
When I lived in Jackson, MI, they tested their sirens 12 noon the first Saturday of the month. I had the misfortune to be DIRECTLY UNDER ONE for the April 2006 test. Needless to say, I almost had to change my shorts. A couple months later, there was a small F0 tornado that came through almost at the Jackson Co. / Washtenaw Co. line, damaged a barn and a couple trees I think. Because of the way the sirens were wired, for a small piddly twister on the eastern border of the county, moving into another county, they had to blow the sirens for THE ENTIRE COUNTY. I mean, get with it! Can't you rig the sirens so only the towns / townships that are under the gun (or is it cloud?) actually get the alert? That's how it's done here in OK.
It's interesting to see that most places that have Tornado sirens actually test them on Wednesday. Here in the Tulsa suburban area of OK, most cities test their sirens with an audible test 12 noon every Wednesday, and an ultrasonic test (inaudible to humans, but testing equipment and dogs hear it) on some other day/time. I first heard about the ultrasonic tests 10 years ago. I'm not sure if they still do those or not.
Where I live, I'm not sure if we have a siren close by. However, you can hear those things from miles off. Besides that fact that when the weather gets crappy, we're automatically tuning in to the weather, as my wife is paranoid about tornadoes, whereas I'm used to sirens going off. She panicks if there's a t-storm watch.
I've never seen a tornado. I've lived in OK for most of my life, and only seen ONE wall cloud. It passed over the house I was taking shelter in at the time, but luckily didn't have a funnel hanging down from it.
I would encourage everyone to do some research and learn to identify the following weather phenomenon:
"gustnadoes" a.k.a. "front line tornadoes" : These form on the LEADING edge of a storm or gust front, and often are just really strong whirlwinds or dust devils. They do relatively little, if any, damage. A true tornado usually forms on the back side of a storm, usually indicated by a "hook", "comma", or "notch" in the radar return for that storm.
"gust front" (I'd have to look that one up myself)
"Wall cloud" : the lowered section of cloud that actually produces a tornado. This is part of the meso-cyclone with the storm that generates the rotation. Wall clouds are often visibly rotating, which is a key difference to to cloud formations, which don't seem to rotate visibly in front of you.
"Rain wrapped" : is a phrase used to describe a tornado that is completely encircled by rain, and NOT visible to the naked eye.
"Micro-burst" : This is a weather phenomenon that can actually look like a wall cloud. However, it DOES NOT ROTATE. You may not actually see the cloud moving with your naked eye, but if you look at the cloud, look away, look back after a few seconds, and repeat, it will look something like a "mushroom cloud" from an explosion, only it moves from the cloud cover towards the ground. Micro-bursts contain a strong down-draft of cold air, often containing heavy rain and maybe hail. When they reach the ground, the wind from the micro-burst will radiate out along the ground in all directions away from the center of the micro-burst, often at high velocities (I know, because I've driven through one). Imagine turning on a garden hose, hold the hose about 6" above your driveway, and point the nozzle straight down. The water will fan out in all directions. The micro-burst I drove through was only about half a mile in diameter. I'm not sure how big they get, but the "micro" part of the name tells me they don't get too terribly big. A micro-burst occuring on the final approach path or take-off path of an airstrip can and has lead to aircraft crashing.
Bilby, suziequzie, I think you all have the term "cyclone" mixed up. For our Austrailian brethern (and sisters), a "cyclone" is what we consider a hurricane, or what southeast Asia calls a "typhoon".