March 21st-25th is Severe Weather Awareness Week in Iowa, which has become ever more important with March’s tornadoes that were the state’s deadliest since 2008 and the derecho storms that have caused destruction across the state in the last two years.

Monday’s focus is severe thunderstorms, and because of the severity of the August 2020 derecho Washington County Emergency Management Coordinator Marissa Reisen informs residents that the county has changed its outdoor siren protocol, “Previously our warning sirens were only sounded when there was a tornado warning. So that means that the National Weather Service saw rotation on their radar within Washington County and we set off the sirens in the area where that was identified, or if one of our spotters saw a tornado and called it in and we hadn’t already been placed in a warning then we would sound the sirens as well. So now our protocol has changed so that if we have winds over 70 miles an hour or hail greater than two inches in diameter we will sound off the sirens.”

Reisen points out that this change does not mean the sirens will go off every time a severe thunderstorm warning is issued, as that threshold is when a storm produces hail of ¾ of an inch or higher and winds that are equal to or exceed 58 miles per hour. You can hear more about Severe Weather Awareness Week during a two-part Halcyon House Washington Page with Reisen on air and at kciiradio.com.