Illinois warning sirens to be tested Tuesday after postponement for storms

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Outdoor warning sirens across Illinois will have their monthly test this Tuesday morning, after they were canceled last week.

The state's air-raid sirens are tested the first Tuesday of every month. But this past Tuesday, the test was postponed because storms were pounding the area at the time.

There was concern that an air-raid siren test in the middle of a storm would have caused confusion, as tornado warnings are their most frequent use.

While the most famous instance was not recent, air-raid sirens have caused confusion in Chicago before.  

In 1959, when the White Sox won the American League pennant, Chicago Fire Commissioner Robert Quinn had Chicago's air-raid sirens sound in celebration – triggering fear by some Chicagoans amid the Cold War. A contemporary Associated Press account indicated that people ran into the streets in their night clothes and looked at the sky in fear.

The White Sox went on to lose the World Series that year. The city's outdoor warning sirens were not sounded when the White Sox won the pennant, and then the World Series, in 2005 – though the City of Evanston did sound their sirens when the Cubs won the World Series in 2016.