St. Paul, Minn. — To most people, the sound of a tornado siren means it's time to head for the basement.
But it's music to Mike Nelson's ears.
Nelson, a 20-year-old college student at Minnesota State University in Mankato, watches the skies so he knows when to engage one of the world's loudest hobbies -- cranking up a siren.
He came to admire them during elementary school in Burnsville.
"We had an older, like cold-war era siren right down at the school here," Nelson said. "And every Wednesday, I would not want to go out for recess because I knew it was going to go off. But after it quit going off, I would always just sneak outside and have a look at it. And it's just one of those things that's always been kind of neat. And big loud stuff is fun, anyways."
Meteorologists and storm chasers are well known players in the drama of severe weather. Nelson belongs to another small group of sky watchers who appreciate a different aspect of bad weather -- its distinctive sound. As tornado reports in Minnesota have led the nation so far this year, they've had more opportunity than ever to listen for the wail of sirens.
Today, Nelson has a Federal Signal Thunderbolt 1000 siren of his very own and it's mounted on a wheeled dolly in his back yard in Burnsville. It's considered the classic siren, with a big square horn that's about five-feet long that rotates as the siren sounds.
To hear the complete Minnesota Public Radio broadcast, click on http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/08/17/tornado-sirens/.
For more Minnesota Public Radio news, go to http://minnesota.publicradio.org/features/
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