Apparently that sound is just sine waves of 853 Hz and 960 Hz, designed specifically to be scary and attention-getting. Well I tell you what, it does both of those things extremely well! It tears me right on out of my frame whenever I hear it from the sound alone - danger implications be darned. Anyone else feel that way? (To that extreme, I mean. I'm not asking if it simply does its basic job; I mean does it jumble your joobles good fashion, too!)

when i was younger, i used to sleep with the radio on. as a result, one time, a national weather service warning came on and woke me up in the middle of the night, which scared me s***less

It depends on the situation. If the weather outside looks scary, the emergency sound makes an ominous day ever more ominous. Sometimes the severe weather warnings are just annoying, though - especially when you have them every day in the summer, and they're usually for a distant county.

Lord, yes. My sister and I joke that the intent is to kill you via heart attack before any tornado gets a chance to.