Today, Monday the 7th of March, there will be a civil defense siren test called “Hesa Fredrik” (Hoarse Fredrik, editor’s note). This happens the first Monday of every third month in Sweden.
At 3 PM today, civil defense sirens (Viktigt meddelande till allmänheten in Swedish) will be tested throughout Swedish cities. It is tested the first Monday of every third month and will contain a series of seven seconds long tunes followed by fourteen seconds of silence. This will be repeated for two minutes and will close with a ninety second break and a final thirty second tune to signal “danger is over”.
The sirens are thus not connected to the ongoing situation in Ukraine, something Swedish agencies have been keen to emphasize.
The name “Hesa Fredrik” derives from 1931, when the alarm was first tested, and is derived from the editor of the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter, Oscar Fredrik Rydqvist. He said that the alarm sounded as hoarse as himself.
