Siren sounded this afternoon in lucas county - mon, aug 11, 2014

http://toledotalk.com/cgi-bin/tt.pl/article/181686/11Aug2014/Ark-Building_Time

http://toledotalk.com/cgi-bin/tt.pl/article/181703/Tornado_siren

my comment:

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a_fan posted at 05:40:20 PM on Aug 11, 2014:

It was a maumee bay algae warning.

Maybe that will occur later this month. With 4 to 7 inches of rain falling over the area today, a lot of run-off will flow into our watershed. That might fire up the green wave, no offense to Tulane University. Their logo could be adapted to Toledo, since we share the same letter.

Recent Blade photo of Lake Erie:

Tulane U. logo:

If this afternoon's cloud showed distinct rotation, then I can understand sounding the sirens.

But the National Weather Service never sounded the alarm, so maybe they were not convinced based upon what they saw or didn't see on Doppler radar, or the NWS never got the report.

Since law enforcement reported the funnel cloud, I assume that they notified the NWS. And law enforcement should know the difference between a funnel-shaped cloud and a cloud that's showing rotation.

The sheriff's department does not have to wait for a tornado warning to be issued by the NWS in order to sound the sirens. Sheriffs can make that decision on their own.