For those who blantently poke fun of or ignore tornado warnings, your outlook on them might be a bit different if you were a resident of Barneveld, Wi, in June of 1984.......

www.weather.com (weather channel) has various alerts that you can sign up for - some free, some not.. If you have american family insurance, you can sign up for free to have email and phone calls that are automatic when a tornado warning has been issued for Janesville (or whatever your personal address)... a robocall to your cell phone could be very useful. It has been my experience that the national weather service issues warnings specifically for Janesville almost a full minute prior to the city sirens. If the warning is sounded at night, I seek shelter immediately, and check the weather reports. If it happens during the day, I tend to go outside and check the reports! ; )

Dwightk...I agree..."most damage such a small area - often only about 1% of the total warned area"...but the crapshoot is that no one knows exactly which 1% is until it hits.
99% to 1% odds
"Do you feel lucky?"

I understand the frustration, but I have to side with lovemygoldens on this one. The one time that someone gets hurt or killed because they didn't hear a siren or it didn't work, there would lawsuits like crazy!

Dwight-who is going to pay for this modern upgrade you're talking about?

I was the first I ever saw in person and TWINS to top it off. yikes.

frogger: yes, born and raised in Wisconsin, grew up in Janesville but didn't live there my whole life. I know there were lots of tornadoes in Wisconsin but didn't know of any right in Janesville. Because of that we always had a (probably) false sense of security regarding tornadoes. I guess the one on the south side was while I lived in another state but I remember the one west of town not too long ago.

dg468- are you from WI?
Stoughton a few years ago.
The place where Circus World Museum is a couple years ago.(I think that is the right place.
West of Janesville touched down near some farms. I saw twin twisters out by the golf course. I headed for the basement!!!!!!

No twister in Janesville but some very high winds did some major damage.
Those are just the ones I can think of.

Unfortunately, Rock County has an emergency manager (Shirley Connors) who is stuck in the 20th century and refuses to come to grips with modern technology. The National Weather Service, for a few years, has been using polygon warnings and not county-wide warnings. The polygon warnings are based on the forecast track of the tornadic area of the storm and cover only portions of counties, not the entire county. Rock Co. needs to get with the program and implement a system to sounds the sirens in areas only affected by the warning.
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Between 1950 and 2010 there were 25 tornadoes in Rock County.
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No only is the false alarm ratio a reason why people don't heed tornado warnings, it's also the fact that when there is an actual tornado, most damage such a small area - often only about 1% of the total warned area.

I was born and raised in Janesville and ever since I turned sixteen when the sirens go off im in the car chasing! I've been interested in weather as long as I can remember and have learned alot along the way. Now that I have a family I make sure they're in the basement safe and off I go!

No tornados, no warnings, no heeding.

Nope

Everyone is mentioning "the boy who cried wolf." What they're forgetting is that the wolf eventually came and got the boy!! The reason they sound the sirens when there's a chance a tornado is in the county is to protect us! The one time they don't sound the siren in time how many people are going to complain and threaten to sue?

When the tornado hit on the south side, two neighbors behind me were sitting in their backyard on patio chairs and drinking beer watching for it. I was in my basement!

I agree with Callitasiseeit. When the sirens go off, we immediately turn to the internet for radar and base our decision to seek shelter based on how close the storm appears to be to our specific location.

In Rock County the tornado sirens are much like the boy who called wolf...they go off so often without a serious threat, that they are often ignored.

I remember in the early 90's there was what they called a micro burst on the North side of Beloit. It uprooted huge pine trees along Inman Pkwy right alongside the Old Powers School building.

If I know a storm is coming I make sure we're prepared for it in the basement. I have 4 kids so I make sure they are down there, along with food, water, flashlights, and the emergency radio. All the animals follow us downstairs so I don't worry about them. If my husband is working nights he will text me a warning in case I sleep through a siren, but that rarely happens. I love storms and keep a very close eye on them, so they don't typically catch me by surprise. And yeah, I usually stay upstairs and watch the radar and step out onto the porch and watch the sky. Most storms are either West or North of us and the siren doesn't apply to us most of the time, but there is always a chance of one popping up. In fact, I had a tornado dream last night...lol Hopefully it's not a premonition!

yes one has touched down in JVL i think it was back in 1998 out here off of County H it did a bit of damage. i do remember that because at the time i lived in the city limits and now i do live off of county H and can remember taking a ride out this way to see the path...

Greg-- I DO remember that tornado on the south side, I have a picture of it somewhere..I saw it! I was on my way to pickup the kids from the babysitter...and saw it as a funnel cloud...almost over that old "Kmart" store--later after it was over, I heard it touched down near the JATCO (??) building, and saw the damage it did along the fence line. Not too much, but it was the first tornado I had ever seen. Do I heed the warnings?? im a weather watcher. I have a weather radio, but when weather is like it was the other night, Im on the computer...with different Natl Weather Svc sites and a local radar. I sometimes know the warnings before they come on the TV..so..I heed them...but...only if they pertain right to our specific area. So many many times the storms split..or go right around Janesville. It really is like we have a protective area around us. I know we dont..but it seems like it.

dg468: I didn't look it up in our archives, but I do recall that a small tornado about 20 years ago, maybe a tad longer, hit the area around what was then the Kmart building (now the Rock County Job Center) on Janesville's south side and caused minor damage. Any reader recall that one? I think the notion that the river somehow protects Janesville is a fallacy, and that particular storm would support that.
Greg Peck

I think a lof of people dont take them seriously because it seems like the sirens are controlled by the kindergarden class or something. Growing up in Janesville I remember them always going off, being tested. They always went off when nothing happened.... then when we did get a "destructive wind" they never went off and they try to say it wasnt a tornado. They have to have a forensic analization of what they think the wind speed was.
Ive watched signs and buildings peel apart....and no siren going off. I guess we can have 100mph winds, but if it isnt swirling round and round they are not a concern. The direction the wind is traveling seems to be more important than the wind speed. I take the sirens as serious as the weather reports we get...which all seem to be random shots in the dark most the time.
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And who cares if an actual tornado touched down in janesville. We've had wind damage comparable to that of a tornado so that should be all that matters.

I heed lightning.

I also agree that the county wide siren, just doesn't work. I also put all of my animals in the basement with their food and water and I go and watch the storm from the patio. If it starts looking bad in our area, I will go downstairs too.

Stores seem to heed to the sirens though. I was in Target for 1 hour during a Tornado Warning because their policy is to close the checkouts and put everyone in the safest place in the store (by the dressing rooms in the corner--yeah that would save us). You were allowed to leave, but without checking out. They were kind enough though to hand out "inconvenience" coupons because of their policy.

I agree with the earlier comment. As long as the guidelines are in place to sound warnings county-wide whenever there are signs of a tornado somewhere in the county, I will choose not to take them seriously. I realize the intent is to give all as much advance warning as possible, still it really does create the 'boy crying wolf' syndrome. Authorities really need to evaluate this.

I gather up our three cats and make sure they're safely in the basement and then my husband and I are both out on the patio watching the skies. The cats may inherit whatever's left of the house some day:)

I believe the sirens go off even if there are no sightings, just that conditions are right for a potential tornado. That's changed from years ago when there had to be a sighting. I don't heed them now because they go off too often, and I have no idea if a tornado has been seen.

Yep I am in the basement under the stairwell with my purse, flashlight and the scanner. Hubby is out on the front porch looking for it, the kid is on the internet looking at the radar and dreaming of the day she can go chase them YIKES !

Bend in the river.....? Hmmmm.

I keep the Internet on when there is a watch or warning. The problem is the sirens go off county wide if there is a sighting anywhere. So if you are in Beloit you may be in absolutely no danger but the siren is going off because of a sighting in Evansville. This creates "the boy who cried wolf" syndrome and many begin to ignore them. By keeping a good website up I can determine weather that siren is for me or 25 miles away.

Growing up in Janesville everyone said there had never been a tornado that touched down there because of the bend in the river. I don't know if that's true or not but when there was a tornado warning or a bad storm you would find us out on the front porch enjoying the show. Does anyone know if there ever was a tornado touchdown in Janesville?