The Tornado/Storm Warning System is an outdoor warning system, meaning that the sirens are designed to be heard outside, which is the most vulnerable place to be in severe weather conditions.

In the Madison County portion of the City in 2024, nine sirens were replaced in existing locations, and three sirens were installed in new locations. In the St. Clair County portion of the City in 2024, four sirens were replaced in existing locations.

As a reminder, the system that was replaced – which had been in place for decades and included sirens that were over 40 years old – used a manually-activated process that required City Communications Technicians to receive information of a tornado warning via a teletype or email, acknowledge that they had the information and set off ALL of the City's sirens at once from the Communications Center located in the Police Department. Because of their age, replacement parts were no longer available for these sirens and their failure rate was high.

Instead of relying on manual activations, the new siren system uses more advanced technology that’s connected to the National Weather Service’s polygon warning system, which improves accuracy and quality. According to the NOAA and NWS, this allows your local NOAA NWS Weather Forecast Office to "be able to narrow their focus on a portion of a county (or counties) that have the greatest threat for being impacted by severe weather." Once a tornado warning is issued for a polygon-based area, the sirens that are in said area automatically activate – NOT all of the City's sirens. If the siren(s) in your area sound, a tornado or destructive thunderstorm is projected by the NWS to be heading in your direction.

Here are a few things that you can do to prepare for a storm:

🔈 Keep your devices charged and make sure that you have batteries in your flash-lights, etc.
🔈 Have a plan for where you and your family will go to shelter in the event that the Emergency Sirens activate. Know your safe place, and be ready to act fast if needed.
🔈 Stock the supplies in your house’s Emergency Disaster Kit.
🔈 Collinsville residents are encouraged to sign-up for Emergency Alerts from the Madison County Emergency Management Agency through CodeRED Emergency Communications. Click here to sign-up for these alerts.
🔈 Listen to local news or an NOAA Weather Radio to stay informed about severe thunderstorm watches and warnings.
🔈 As always, contact 9-1-1 in the event of an emergency.
🔈 For more tips, visit https://ready.illinois.gov/hazards/tornadoes.html

 To sign up for CodeRed Alerts click below: