Twin States Weather Blog

Weather Radio...

* Here is a great piece on the pertinent operational info on NOAA Weather Radios, courtesy of Brian Peters and the ABC 33/40 Weather Blog...

(Please note that I have replaced the local Birmingham info with more applicable East MS/West AL info)

Here are a couple of pointers that I hope will help people decipher everything so that the radios will work as advertised when severe weather occurs.

Frequency or Channel:

The first thing everyone needs to understand is that there are seven (7) frequencies used nationwide by the National Weather Service (NWS). So the very first step is to make sure that you have the radio tuned to the right frequency or channel. These radios have good “receiver sensitivity,” technical words for “they hear really well.” For example, it is possible to pick up more than one broadcast in parts of Newton County. You may be able to receive both the Meridian transmitter and the Carthage transmitter.

But this is why it is so important to be on the correct transmitter. The Birmingham transmitter does not routinely broadcast warnings for Tuscaloosa County. So if you have your radio set to alarm for Tuscaloosa County but you are tuned to the Birmingham transmitter, your radio may never alarm for the warnings you set it for.

FIPS Codes:

The next important element is to program the radio with the correct FIPS code for each county for which you want to hear warnings. FIPS stands for Federal Information Processing System and is a series of codes unique to every one of the over 3,000 counties in the US. The FIPS code is a six-digit number that looks like 028075 which is the code for Lauderdale County Mississippi.

FIPS codes are actually composed of three pieces of information. The first digit is the portion of a county. Zero (0) means all of the county and the numbers 1 through 9 are used for a portion of a county such as the southwest portion. Only zero (0) is currently in use. The second two digits are the state code. The last three digits are the actual county number - 075 for Lauderdale, and so on. So a complete FIPS code for Lauderdale County Mississippi is 028075.

Good References:

A couple of good, quick references can be found at Alabama NWR coverage link and Mississippi NWR coverage link. This web page has seven columns of information including County Name, SAME#, NWR Transmitter, Freq. (Frequency,), Call Sign, Watts, and Remarks. The first four columns are the most important and contain the necessary information for programming a radio.

For those who may want something more graphical, coverage maps of each NWR transmitter can be found here. Click on a name on the map and it will link to the map of that particular transmitter showing the reliable reception area.

In this list, you may find a county listed twice or more. That means that the county is served by two (or more) NOAA Weather Radio transmitters. You will normally want to select the transmitter that is closest to your particular location. A word of caution - you won’t always get the best signal from the closest transmitter - most of the time you will. But various aspects to the radio frequencies used mean that you might not. So you should try each of the frequencies serving your county and determine which is the strongest signal at your location.

The links provided above are for Mississippi and Alabama. If you are interested in getting NOAA Weather Radio information for other areas of the United States, click here.

Testing:

The NWS tests the warning alarm feature every Wednesday, normally between 11 am and noon, weather permitting. You should make sure your radio activates properly during the weekly test. If the radio is tuned to the proper transmitter and you have programmed the correct FIPS code (or codes), then your radio should activate for the test and for warnings.

There are many variables which can affect a radio broadcast in the VHF (Very High Frequency) portion of the radio spectrum where NOAA Weather Radio is located. So please do all your homework and make sure the radio is working properly when the weather is good.

* You will want to make sure you weather radio is working properly before Thursday, as severe weather is likely across parts of Mississippi and Alabama. More on that threat tomorrow afternoon...

Labels: Weather Radio

posted by WTOK Weather Staff @ 8:53 PM