Many across the state are familiar with the startling sound of a severe weather alert interrupting a song on the radio or a television program, followed by the robotic, monotone voice warning listeners of danger.
The National Weather Service administers these alerts through radio stations in affected areas, said Ken Merley, WKAR's broadcast engineering manager.
"It is an automatic system that is triggered by the Michigan State Police using the National Weather Service," he said.
Each radio station in Michigan has a "box" that listens to its local National Weather Service station.
When severe weather occurs in affected counties, the weather station sends "pings" to the box at the radio station in the affected area, which then sends out the alerts, Merley said.
“We've all heard the tones. They're called tones in radio and TV," he said.
At WKAR Radio, the box in the Network and Transmission room is the first recipient of information from the National Weather Service in Onondaga, Michigan. A second box downstairs sends alerts to television. The boxes "listen" to each other at all times, he said.
Merley said if there were bad weather in Eaton or Ingham counties, the NWS alerts would be picked up by the boxes, which would then send alerts to televisions and radios in the area.
Merley said another way people receive warnings, aside from radio or television, is through their cell phones.
These alerts are sent directly to phones through cell towers by the National Weather Service and are called Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA). They also target specific geographic locations affected by a weather emergency.
That means residents in Edwardsburg and Union City should have received warnings over the radio, television, and their cell phones from the NWS when last week's deadly tornadoes touched down.
The NWS confirmed that warnings were issued and that residents did receive alerts.
However, Governor Gretchen Whitmer has questioned why the NWS did not administer a tornado watch for the region in the hours leading up to the storm.
The lone supercell thunderstorm spawned four tornadoes across southwest Michigan, ranging from EF-0 to EF-3, damaging communities, injuring 22 people, and killing four.
The EF-3 tornado in Union City had wind speeds of up to 160 miles per hour and was the strongest tornado in the state since an F4 tornado struck Kalamazoo and Eaton counties in 1977.
Ryan Harriott, president and founder of Michigan Storm Chasers, said severe weather season in Michigan could be more active than normal this year due to changing climate patterns in the Pacific Ocean that impact weather in the U.S.
Michigan Storm Chasers is an organization that provides coverage during severe weather events in the state. The group was live streaming during last week's tornado outbreak, providing viewers with information about the tornado-warned storm's path as it moved across the state.
Last year was the third-most active tornado season in the state's history, with 33 tornadoes. Tornadoes have occurred in every month of the year in Michigan, he said.
Although the majority of tornadoes that occur in the state are weaker, typically EF-0 to EF-1, Harriott said people still need to take warnings and watches seriously because there are exceptions.
An EF-2, nearly EF-3 tornado injured 20 people in Portage, Michigan, and an EF-3 struck Gaylord, Michigan, in 2022, killing two people and injuring more than 40.
"Every severe storm and every tornado that occurs has the potential to disrupt or ruin your life," he said.
It's important for people to have a plan, stay weather aware, and have multiple ways to receive alerts, Harriott said.
"The worst mindset to have is complacency, thinking it's never going to happen to you, because that's when it will," he said.