This is why sirens were going off in Hennepin County this morning

Note: This happened Tuesday, April 12 – if you're hearing sirens on the afternoon of Thursday, April 14, it's part of a planned statewide tornado drill.

If you live in Hennepin County, you may be wondering why tornado sirens were going off around 6:10 a.m. Tuesday.

It was a popular question on Twitter, because it's not Wednesday nor was it 1 p.m., when the sirens are typically tested during the spring and summer months.

KSTP Traffic tweeted that the State Patrol was "inundated" with 911 calls about the sirens.

https://twitter.com/CrystalMNPolice/status/719848195799429122

But apparently there was no real emergency – it was a technical issue that affected just Hennepin County, according to the National Weather Service.

https://twitter.com/HennepinEM/status/719861137710399488

The Hennepin County Sheriff's Office explained a little more about what happened in a news release, saying the "outdoor warning sirens were inadvertently sounded" in Hennepin County around 6:10 a.m. when the system experienced a "momentary computer hardware malfunction" during the daily test to make sure it was working properly.

The system was repaired and is working normally, the release adds.

https://twitter.com/HennepinEM/status/719919784087973889

It is Severe Weather Awareness Week, but the sirens aren't being tested until Thursday at 1:45 p.m.

https://twitter.com/Schwartz_Wx/status/719850957425627136

Once it was determined there was no real threat, people started to have their fun on Twitter, joking lizard people were taking over. And by 6:30 a.m., someone had created a parody Twitter account about the 6 a.m. siren.

https://twitter.com/cwethern/status/719850388338450433

https://twitter.com/robertcyoung/status/719850387738636288

https://twitter.com/poetsforprofit/status/719850320550064128

https://twitter.com/6am_siren/status/719851159486205952