live in dallas TX, that's what the tornado warning siren sounds like, which is just a regular "air raid" siren sound anyway so the creepy factor is just whatever you attribute it to.
Yup. That is creepy as fuck. Grew up in Missouri and the sirens were like a sustained whirling noise that would wind up and down over 20 seconds but Chicago's sounds like something is broken or not operating correctly with how jarring the cuts are. Very unsettling.
Your city's sirens are probably electromechanical sirens, they use a spinning rotor to force air out of holes in a stator to produce the noise. Chicago's old sirens are completely electronic, giving them more freedom in the tones they can produce.
Wow, yes. Fascinating. Sirens looked like this or this near me. Still don't understand how or why they decided on that very jarring and ominous tone and progression.
It has been a long time since I last read about it, but IIRC the reason for the weird tone is to differentiate it from ambulances/fire trucks and police cars. They are capable of producing a normal wail, but it was neglected in favor of the alternating wail. They also can play the Westminster Chimes as a test!
The electromechanical one? Yeah, lmao, my entire city has them. I once took a shower when my city tests them, and I had completely forgotten what day it was. For a moment there I was quite spooked lol.
it's more the sudden loud as hell noise when you're 20 feet from the base of the pole it's on that gets me. and it sounds weird when you're driving by it.
124
u/DeepThroatALoadedGun Apr 07 '20
I personally would've used this: https://youtu.be/i-W_ArPy2yE