If there was a nuclear war - would there be an audible warning?

Question

i.e are there still air-raid sirens situated in countries like the UK and USA? I've never seen anyhting looking like a siren and wondered how we'd all get a warning (assuming it's 4 minutes like the song suggests!!!)

KD

Answer 1

The last  sound you would hear is a fizzing sound as you disappeared up your own r****m in a blinding flash. If you can see the flash It will be the last thing you see as you will probably be blinded instantly. Depending on the yeild how far away from ground zero is going to effect your chances of survival. Most structures will collapse when the overpressure reaches 20lbs PSI remember they are built for standard air pressure. After the blast  there is the vacum to be filled and the air rushes back towards the blast. Now if you have not been vaporised or blinded you have to deal with the radioactive fallout.

All in all not a good day. With 4 minutes warning just think of the looting you could do? Then again were would you spend it?

Answer 2

Yes, the sound of me shitting my pants.  

Answer 3

There would be in my county. We kept the sirens in good repair after the collapse of the Soviet Union and we have at least six radio stations that are connected to the Emergency Broadcast System.  

Answer 4

Yes they exist.  Although the Civil Defense they used to take care of them was absorbed by FEMA (and we all know how they work...) they are still pretty much kept up.  Some small town use them to call in volunteer fire departments, some use them for tornado warnings, but they are still there.  

The warning depends on how much time to impact.  A sub launch may give you 4 minutes or less.  A cross-polar shot would take about 15+minutes depending on the target.  

As to our reaction?  Not sure weather NORAD still tracks the DEFCON status and is as ready to counter launch as it used to be.  

We also don't have Ronnie and his Ray Gun to keep us safe.  

Answer 5

Brings back horrifying memories, hope I will never hear one again.

Answer 6

youd get a warning by BBC broadcast which is fine if you happen to have a radio or TV tuned to BBC switched on at the time, but the national siren system was decommissioned in 1994 so if youre not near a radio or TV set and youre within a few miles of a city centre, airport, seaport or military installation, in four minutes you will be what the American military refers to as 'FUBAR'

Answer 7

Forget air-raid sirens, they are there for bombers coming to bomb you, depending on where you are I think you'd see missiles heading off and you'd know that from the other side there  are already missiles on their way to hit you.

I'd say you might have between 1 and 12 hours, depending on where you are.

If you see no missiles heading off then there's a chance they aren't going to bomb where you are as there's nothing to bomb. But you'll get it just the same. :)

Answer 8

Probably not.. Chances are you would have no warning whatsoever.

Answer 9

Your first warning would be a bright flash of light.

Your second warning would be a big "kaboom" noise.

Your third warning would be St Peter saying "Line forms to the left, people, line forms to the left. No pushing."

Answer 10

praobably not  

when the missile enters the atmosphere, it produces EMF which wipes out all active electronic equipment.

The real question is would you really want to know

Answer 11

Dam i don't 4 minutes to think  about it just a big bang will do.

Answer 12

UK answer - the government, in their infinite wisdom, decided to decommission the civil defence network in the 90's after the collapse of the USSR.  Needless to say this was a false economy and will probably have to be re-installed at some point, at grotesque expense to the taxpayer.  Still, we saved 50p in 1994 so that's ok...

I remember the siren in my village being tested weekly. I didn't know what it meant as a kid, but having seen enough war movies, I realised that it probably wasn't good news....

Answer 13

Wouldn't need one, if you see a news report of Gordon Brown checking out a new underground bunker then the door shuts in the reporters face with Gordon Brown poking his nose out through the lead reinforced letterbox to tell the reporter to "Sod off the noo I'm a noo coming oot"  then you know your death is eminent.

Answer 14

Yes, a chuffing big bang!

Answer 15

Where would you go, what would you do.  It will be on our major cities and the cities will be leveled.  

Answer 16

possibly.  we would be given enough time to stay indoors or in our basements.  

Answer 17

yes they go off a weds. at 1:00 every first weds. of the month it loud u know

Answer 18

Here in Michigan we have emergency sirens that sound when there is severe weather (tornado's etc.), or would sound if one of our Nuclear Power Plants went awry.  I would assume they would also use this for war time, such as nukes, bombs, etc.

Answer 19

we wont get a warning, well maybe a 4 minutes to live warning! I just hope i manage to finish what im doing in that time LOL

Answer 20

As was mentioned, it would depend a great deal on your local community, and if they keep a strong civil defense presence up.

As was pointed out, the time between launch and impact is about 20 some minutes...less for an SLBM launch near the coast. There would be even less because that would include time for NORAD to verify that it was a real launch, reach the POTUS, make him understand it was real, and get authorization to start the Emergency Broadcast System.  If you think about how bureaucracies work I don't expect that they could figure out who to call or who they need to talk to in order to authorize the sirens to go off in the time they would have available.

Your first warning, unless you were directly near a blast, would probably be the EMF pulse.  There is a school of thought that the best possible way to begin an attack would be with a massive EMF blast high in the atmosphere...to knock our radars and coms and satellites off the the air before the bombs started impacting.  Suddenly everything electronic would stop. That would give you a few minutes warning...but not a lot.

Personally I would expect a counter force strike, rather than a counter value strike.  Counter-force is designed to hit our missile silos, and bomber bases, etc. Counter-value is city busting.  The objective is to put oneself in a position where you can call the POTUS on the phone and say "Hi. Your ICMBs are gone. Your B-52's are gone. Every computer chip on the North American continent has been fried. Your economy is in  a shambles. Your people are in a panic, and your subs are being hunted as we speak. We still have 50  1 megaton warheads left. Unless you want to see THEM deployed against your major population centers, you will cut your losses and do the following...1) Order your subs to stand down. 2) Order the British Subs to stand down. 3)......"

Answer 21

We used to practice every Friday to the sirens wailing at school from all over town in In. US in the early 70's.  What a great way to induce paranoia that was.  I would imagine some of those old sirens are still working but the protocols for setting them off and operators are probably long gone in most parts.  I don't think the UK ever really took it seriously, the Americans had too much to lose and Russia was understandably far more frightened of them as Fascism had arisen from Democracy.  Now the US in encircling Russia breaking treaties and developing Star Wars while signing up the Soviet Unions old ex States for NATO w. no conception of the Russian view/perspective on this so we are more likely now to need the old sirens than then in retrospect..

Answer 22

We have them in the MidWest. Mostly for tornado and storm warnings. Back in the 60's, we had fallout shelters, air raid sirens, towns would shut off electricity in the dark (I guess they thought missiles can't find their way in the dark). Duck and cover drills. But I think people finally figured out you can't survive one.

Answer 23

Nah, Just My Car Alarm

And besides

TV

Radio

Electronic Motorway Signs

Police

Text Message

Answer 24

yes there would.

Answer 25

Yeppers...It sounds like "BOOM"...

Answer 26

NORAD I believe.  

Answer 27

No warning for us. The elites however will tuck away somewhere underground.

Answer 28

It wouldn't matter, you are going to be killed.

Answer 29

Doest it really matter, cuz when it does happen youll know, and you wont want to know. All that matters is how do want to go out, for me i am finding the nearest girl i can and going out like a champ, my girl friend wont care at that point. Plus we have a missile defense system all over, they would have to shoot like 100 nukes at us before one gets through, so dont worry about it. Plus we would throw just as many nukes at them