During and after the severe weather our area experienced on Wednesday evening, November 30, several of you were questioning why York County never sounded the Outdoor Alert System (sirens). Some even wanted to know why the City didn’t use the System. The City has no control over that system. Mayor Sheppard directed City Manager Charlie Funderburk to speak with the York County Emergency Management Director, Chuck Haynes, about this and below is what we have learned.
· The National Weather Service (NWS) has two criteria that must be met before local Emergency Management can use the sirens.
1) There must be a circulation of clouds capable of producing a tornado must be visible on radar.
2) They have to have visual confirmation from someone (fire department, weather watcher, etc.) that they have seen see the tornado.
· According to YC Emergency Management, years ago there would be a small handful of warnings issued each year. With the advancement in radar technology, they are now issuing up to 3-4 per month during the typical storm seasons, which is a big increase. If sirens were used every time, without visual sightings, people would potentially begin ignoring them.
· The threat for York County during Wednesday’s storm, according to the NWS, was for the Sharon area of York County (western York Co.) but they cannot issue a warning for an area, the warning has to be for the entire County. During the warning, Emergency Management received zero calls from anyone in Sharon. They did get a few calls
regarding a few downed trees.
· There are no sirens in the area of the County where the threat was the greatest as all the sirens are within a radius of the Nuclear station. For York Co. that puts them in the eastern side of the County (Lake Wylie/eastern Clover township, Tega Cay/Ft. Mill and Rock Hill).
· When NWS saw the circulation on radar they issued the warning immediately. Within two minutes of the warning being issued, that cloud formation had weakened. Since the warning was for a brief period of time, they didn’t remove it and just let it expire.
· NWS says the sirens are to be used as a secondary alert system only. The primary alert systems are news media, radio, NOAA/NWS phone alerts for mobile devices which were all used. They only go to the secondary alert system once they have visual confirmation of a tornado.
· The cloud formation that caused the damage in Steele Creek was being monitored closely by YC Emergency Management and NWS as it came across York Co. It didn’t come together and form the tight rotation until in crossed the state line.
If you have any additional questions regarding this, please contact the York County Emergency Management office @ (803) 326-2300.