It Was a Dark and Stormy Night . . .

I understand the noble reasons for setting off the sirens to warn of bad weather but I'm old school - to me, sirens will always mean a tornado is on the ground and imminent death is possible - head for the basement!  So this new thing they're doing - setting off the sirens to signal high winds - seems to me to be not unnecessary, exactly, but hey, could they use a different sound or something to indicate that the warning is for wind and not a tornado?  Especially at 1:00 a.m. and again at 1:23 a.m.?

Jerking myself out of sleep with a rush of adrenaline, grabbing my phone and purse, calling the critters to head for the basement in the middle of the night . . . and then turning on the TV to hear the weatherman say " . . . no threat of tornadoes in our area but we're under a severe thunderstorm watch until 4:00 a.m." . . . Okaaaaay.  You scared the crap out of me for a thunderstorm?  My heart finally slowed to its normal pace and we headed back up to bed but it was a long time before I could sleep again, long enough that I got to listen to the rumble of thunder and hear the rain slashing the windows - my favorite lullaby - and I dozed fitfully until the next round of storms came through around 5:00.

I'm not griping about the warnings - truly I'm not.  But I do think there should be a way to differentiate the sirens for high winds and deadly tornadoes.  Like the Boy Who Cried Wolf, people may begin to ignore the sirens as much ado about nothing - not a good thing, in my opinion.

Yawwwwwwn . . . it's going to be a long day.