Spanish Fort will conduct its regularly scheduled tornado siren test on Wednesday, September 7, sounding the city’s outdoor warning sirens at 12:30 p.m. The brief test runs about five minutes, weather permitting, and is part of a standing monthly routine: sirens across the city are tested at 12:30 p.m. on the first Wednesday of every month.
Don’t Rely on Outdoor Sirens Alone Indoors
City officials stress that the outdoor sirens are meant to alert people who are outside, and that anyone already inside a building should not count on hearing them. Residents are encouraged to maintain multiple layers of warning, including local news broadcasts, a NOAA weather radio, and severe weather alerts on their phones.
The National Weather Service’s Mobile office maintains a detailed set of frequently asked questions about how outdoor warning sirens work and what they are designed to do, covering everything from why sirens sound for other threats to how far their audible range extends.
If skies are stormy on testing day, the test is pushed back rather than run in threatening weather, so a silent siren on a stormy first Wednesday does not mean the system is down.