Star Tribune
In Hennepin County, outdoor warning sirens still key to delivering severe weather alerts
When a family of tornadoes roared across the Twin Cities on May 6, 1965, authorities sounded civil defense sirens to warn people to take cover.
It was a bold move that had never been tried before, and it worked.
“They got it,” said Eric Waage, director of Hennepin County Emergency Management. “They took shelter. The sirens saved lives.”
Once reserved to alert civilians to enemy military attacks, outdoor warning sirens remain a critical tool in warning the public of extremely large hail, destructive winds and tornadoes. On Thursday, sirens will blare at 1:45 p.m. and 6:45 p.m. as part of a statewide tornado drill to be held in conjunction with Severe Weather Awareness Week.
The drills, which will be canceled if there is severe weather, are meant to encourage people to think, “What would I do now?” Waage said.
Other activities to remind and educate people about what to do when severe weather strikes will be Monday through Friday.
From 1950 through 2020, Minnesota has averaged 29 tornadoes a year, according to the Minnesota State Climatology Office. While 77% of twisters in Minnesota occur during May, June and July, the violent spiral windstorms have been reported in every month of the year except January and February. In 2021, at least 16 tornadoes danced across Minnesota on Dec. 15, the latest date for a tornado ever reported in the state, records show.
Though none has been reported in Minnesota yet this year, there had been 519 nationwide as of Friday, nearly double the average at this point in the year, according to the National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center. Tornadoes already have led to 63 deaths this year, approaching the yearly nationwide average of 71.
The trend has Hennepin County officials fearing that 2023 could be an active summer locally. Urban areas are not immune, as shown by twisters that inflicted damage on north Little Rock, Ark., and other communities across the southern U.S. in recent weeks, Waage said.
In the past 50 years, more than 30 tornadoes have touched down in Hennepin County, including north Minneapolis in 2011 and Edina and south Minneapolis in 1981. In 1939, a storm raced from Medina to Anoka and became the namesake of the Anoka High School sports teams: the Tornadoes.
While the nearly 300 sirens in Hennepin County remain the most direct way to get the word out — warnings don’t have to pass through media outlets before reaching the public — the county in recent years has invested heavily in technology to expand ways to alert residents of the state’s most populous county, and fast.
“People don’t pay attention as they used to,” said Emily Jackson, a Hennepin County Emergency Management meteorologist. “They are not as weather aware.”
A large section of the county’s public works facility in Medina houses the Emergency Operations Center. The county has three meteorologists on staff to monitor weather conditions, and a network of 25 automated weather stations feeding them data. When strong storms develop, staff members come into the nerve center to monitor a bevy of radio frequencies, send out alerts to cell phones and on social media channels and even post messages on electronic highway billboards.
The county also holds annual training for severe weather reporting for staff and volunteer weather spotters and works in concert with the National Weather Service.
“We hope to provide even more accurate warnings,” Waage said.
In addition to tornado warnings, Hennepin County sirens sound when hail 2 1⁄2 inches or more in diameter is reported and when winds reach 80 mph or stronger.
That is one reason Hennepin County is among several agencies participating in Severe Weather Awareness Week. And the hope is residents, businesses and schools will participate, too.
Waage said all households should have a NOAA weather radio that broadcasts storm warnings and hazards instantly. Cell phones may not be the most reliable because they might not work in some buildings, he said.
“People need to have more than one method to be warned,” Waage said.
That is why the tried-and-true siren will always sound when severe weather strikes — an official confirmation that “it’s time to take protective action,” Waage said.
The Lynx are in the hot seat.
The team lost Game 3 of the WNBA Finals series against the New York Liberty on Wednesday night 77-80, setting the stage for a decisive match at Target Center on Friday night. Fans in the arena reacted with resounding disappointment after Sabrina Ionescu sunk a three-pointer to break away from the tie game and dashed the Lynx’s chance at forcing overtime.
Before we get to the reactions, first things first: The Lynx set an attendance record, filling Target Center with 19,521 spectators for the first time in franchise history. That’s nearly 500 more than when Caitlin Clark was in town with the Indiana Fever earlier this year.
Despite leading by double digits for much of the game, the Lynx began the fourth quarter with a one-point lead over the Liberty and struggled to stay more than two or three points ahead throughout.
The Liberty took the lead with minutes to go in the fourth quarter and folks were practically despondent.
Of course, there were people who were in it solely for the spectacle. Nothing more.
The Lynx took a commanding lead early in the first quarter and ended the first half in winning position, setting a particularly jovial mood among the fanbase to start the game.
Inside Target Center, arena announcers spent a few minutes before the game harassing Lynx fans — and Liberty fans — who had not yet donned the complementary T-shirts draped over every seat.
DULUTH – The Minnesota and Wisconsin transportation departments will make upgrades to the Richard I. Bong Memorial Bridge in the summer of 2025, in preparation for the structure to become the premiere route between this city and Superior during reconstruction of the Blatnik Bridge.
Built in 1961, the Blatnik Bridge carries 33,000 vehicles per day along Interstate 535 and Hwy. 53. It will be entirely rebuilt, starting in 2027, with the help of $1 billion in federal funding announced earlier this year. MnDOT and WisDOT are splitting the remaining costs of the project, about $4 million each.
According to MnDOT, projects on the Bong Bridge will include spot painting, concrete surface repairs to the bridge abutments, concrete sealer on the deck, replacing rubber strip seal membranes on the main span’s joints and replacing light poles on the bridge and its points of entry. It’s expected to take two months, transportation officials said during a recent meeting at the Superior Public Library.
During this time there will be occasional lane closures, detours at the off-ramps, and for about three weeks the sidewalk path alongside the bridge will be closed.
The Bong Bridge, which crosses the St. Louis River, opened to traffic in 1985 and is the lesser-used of the two bridges. Officials said they want to keep maintenance to a minimum on the span during the Blatnik project, which is expected to take four years.
Red Wing will celebrate the grand opening of its first permanent set of pickleball courts next week with an “inaugural play” on the six courts at Colvill Park on the banks of the Mississippi, between a couple of marinas and next to the aquatic center.
Among the first to get to play on the new courts will be David Anderson, who brought pickleball to the local YMCA in 2008, before the nationwide pickleball craze took hold, and Denny Yecke, at 92 the oldest pickleball player in Red Wing.
The inaugural play begins at 11 a.m. Tuesday, with a rain date of the next day. Afterward will be food and celebration at the Colvill Park Courtyard building.
Tim Sletten, the city’s former police chief, discovered America’s fastest-growing sport a decade ago after he retired. With fellow members of the Red Wing Pickleball Group, he’d play indoors at the local YMCA or outdoors at a local school, on courts made for other sports. But they didn’t have a permanent place, so they approached the city about building one.
When a city feasibility study came up with a high cost, about $350,000, Sletten’s group got together to raise money.
The courts are even opening ahead of schedule, originally set for 2025.
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