KIH60
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

NOAA Weather Radio NWR; also known as NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards is an automated 24-hour network of VHF FM
weather radio A weather radio is a specialized radio receiver that is designed to receive a public broadcast service, typically from government-owned radio stations, dedicated to broadcasting weather forecasts and reports on a continual basis, with the routine w ...
stations in the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
(U.S.) that broadcast weather information directly from a nearby
National Weather Service The National Weather Service (NWS) is an agency of the United States federal government that is tasked with providing weather forecasts, warnings of hazardous weather, and other weather-related products to organizations and the public for the ...
office. The routine programming cycle includes local or regional weather forecasts, synopsis, climate summaries or zone/lake/coastal waters forecasts (when applicable). During severe conditions the cycle is shortened into: hazardous weather outlooks, short-term forecasts, special weather statements or tropical weather summaries (the first two aren't normally broadcast in most offices). It occasionally broadcasts other non-weather related events such as national security statements, natural disaster information, environmental and
public safety Public security or public safety is the prevention of and protection from events that could endanger the safety and security of the public from significant danger, injury, or property damage. It is often conducted by a state government to ensur ...
statements (such as an
AMBER Alert An Amber Alert (alternatively styled AMBER alert) or a child abduction emergency alert ( SAME code: CAE) is a message distributed by a child abduction alert system to ask the public for help in finding abducted children. The system originated in ...
), civil emergencies, fires, evacuation orders, and other hazards sourced from the
Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdicti ...
's (FCC)
Emergency Alert System The Emergency Alert System (EAS) is a national warning system in the United States designed to allow authorized officials to broadcast emergency alerts and warning messages to the public via cable, satellite, or broadcast television, and bot ...
. NOAA Weather Radio uses automated broadcast technology (since 2016: Broadcast Message Handler) that allows (and frees NWS staff as well) for the recycling of segments featured in one broadcast cycle seamlessly into another and more regular updating of segments to each of the transmitters. It also speeds up the warning transmitting process. Weather radios are widely sold online and in retail stores that specialize in
consumer electronics Consumer electronics or home electronics are electronic ( analog or digital) equipment intended for everyday use, typically in private homes. Consumer electronics include devices used for entertainment, communications and recreation. Usuall ...
in Canada and the U.S. Additionally, they are readily available in many supermarkets and drugstores in the southern and midwestern US, which are particularly susceptible to severe weather—large portions of these regions are commonly referred to as "
Tornado Alley Tornado Alley is a loosely defined area of the central United States where tornadoes are most frequent. The term was first used in 1952 as the title of a research project to study severe weather in areas of Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Kansas, ...
".


History

The U.S. Weather Bureau first began broadcasting marine weather information in Chicago and New York City on two VHF radio stations in 1960 as an experiment. Proving to be successful, the broadcasts expanded to serve the general public in coastal regions in the 1960s and early 1970s. By early 1970, ESSA listed 20 U.S. cities using 162.55 MHz and one using 163.275 "ESSA VHF Radio Weather." Later, the U.S. Weather Bureau adopted its current name,
National Weather Service The National Weather Service (NWS) is an agency of the United States federal government that is tasked with providing weather forecasts, warnings of hazardous weather, and other weather-related products to organizations and the public for the ...
(NWS), and was operating 29 VHF-FM weather-radio transmitters under the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (abbreviated as NOAA ) is an United States scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditio ...
(NOAA) which replaced ESSA in 1970. The service was designed with boaters, fishermen, travelers and more in mind, allowing listeners to quickly receive a "life-saving" weather bulletin from their local weather forecast office (WFO), along with routinely updated forecasts and other climatological data in a condensed format at any time of the day or night. The general public could have the latest weather updates when they needed them, and the benefit of more lead-time to prepare during severe conditions. In 1974, NOAA Weather Radio (NWR), as it was now called, reached about 44 percent of the U.S. population over 66 nationwide transmitters. NWR grew to over 300 stations by the late 1970s. Local NWS staff were the voices heard on NWR stations from its inception until the late 1990s when "Paul" was introduced. The messages were recorded on tape, and later by digital means, then placed in the broadcast cycle. This technology limited the programming variability and locked it into a repetitive sequential order. It also slowed down the speed of warning messages when severe weather happened, because each NWS office could have up to eight transmitters. "Paul" was a computerized voice using the
DECtalk DECtalk was a speech synthesizer and text-to-speech technology developed by Digital Equipment Corporation in 1983, based largely on the work of Dennis Klatt at MIT, whose source-filter algorithm was variously known as KlattTalk or MITalk. U ...
text-to-speech system. "Paul's" voice was dissatisfactory and difficult to understand; thus "Craig", "Tom," "Donna" and later "Javier" were introduced in 2002 using the Speechify text-to-speech system from
SpeechWorks SpeechWorks was a company founded in Boston in 1994 by speech recognition pioneer Mike Phillips and Bill O'Farrell. The Boston-based company developed and supported speech-related computer software. Originally known as Applied Language Technologi ...
(not to be confused with the iOS app of the same name). A completely new voice from the VoiceText text-to-speech system, also named “Paul”, was introduced in 2016 and implemented nationwide by late in the year. Live human voices are still used occasionally for weekly tests of the
Specific Area Message Encoding Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME) is a protocol used for framing and classification of broadcast emergency warning messages. It was developed by the United States National Weather Service for use on its NOAA Weather Radio (NWR) network, an ...
(SAME) and 1,050 Hz tone alerting systems, station IDs, and in the event of system failure or computer upgrades. They will also be used on some stations for updates on the time and radio frequency. In the 1990s, the National Weather Service adopted plans to implement SAME technology nationwide; the roll-out moved slowly until 1995, when the U.S. government provided the budget needed to develop the SAME technology across the entire radio network. Nationwide implementation occurred in 1997 when the
Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdicti ...
(FCC) adopted the SAME standard as part of its new
Emergency Alert System The Emergency Alert System (EAS) is a national warning system in the United States designed to allow authorized officials to broadcast emergency alerts and warning messages to the public via cable, satellite, or broadcast television, and bot ...
(EAS). NOAA Weather Radio's public alerting responsibilities expanded from hazardous weather-only events to "all hazards" being broadcast.


Expansion

In the wake of the
1965 Palm Sunday tornado outbreak On April 10–12, 1965, a devastating severe weather event affected the Midwestern and Southeastern United States. The tornado outbreak produced 55 confirmed tornadoes in one day and 16 hours. The worst part of the outbreak oc ...
, one of the key recommendations from the U.S. Weather Bureau's storm survey team, was the establishment of a nationwide radio network that could be used to broadcast weather warnings to the general public, hospitals, key institutions, news media, schools, and the public safety community. Starting in 1966, the
Environmental Science Services Administration The Environmental Science Services Administration (ESSA) was a United States Federal executive agency created in 1965 as part of a reorganization of the United States Department of Commerce. Its mission was to unify and oversee the meteorologica ...
(ESSA) started a nationwide program known as "ESSA VHF Weather Radio Network." In the early 1970s, this was changed to NOAA Weather Radio. The service was expanded to coastal locations during the 1970s in the wake of
Hurricane Camille Hurricane Camille was the second most intense tropical cyclone on record to strike the United States, behind the 1935 Labor Day hurricane. The most intense storm of the 1969 Atlantic hurricane season, Camille originated as a tropical depression ...
based upon recommendations made by the Department of Commerce after the storm in September 1969. Since then, a proliferation of stations have been installed and activated to ensure near-complete geographical coverage and "weather-readiness", many of which have been funded by state emergency management agencies in cooperation with the NOAA to expand the network, or state public broadcasting networks. To avoid interference and allow for more specific area coverage, the number of frequencies in use by multiple stations grew to two with the addition of 162.400 MHz in 1970 followed by the third (162.475) in 1975 with the remaining four (162.425, 162.450, 162.500 & 162.525) coming into use by 1981. In the 1950s, the Weather Bureau started with KWO35 in New York City and later added KWO39 in Chicago. By 1965 it had added KID77 in Kansas City, home to the Severe Local Storms Center, as the third continuous VHF radio transmitter with the fourth, KBA99 in Honolulu, operating by January 1967. Denver became the 60th NWR station in September 1972 and by December 1976 there were roughly 100 stations transmitting on three channels in December 1976. Growth accelerated in the mid-1970s with NWR reaching 200 radio stations in May 1978 with WXK49 in Memphis, Tennessee; 300 in September 1979 with WXL45 in Columbia, Missouri; and by 1988, the NWS operated about 380 stations covering approximately 90 percent of the nation's population. This grew to over 500 radio stations by May 1999, and over 800 by the end of 2001. As of January 2020, there were about 1,032 stations in operation in fifty states, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, and Saipan, with over 95% effective coverage.


Operations

The NOAA Weather Radio network is provided as a public service by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NOAA also provides secondary weather information, usually limited to marine
storm warning At sea, a storm warning is a warning issued by the National Weather Service of the United States when winds between 48 knots (89 km/h, 55 mph) and 63 knots (117 km/h, 73 mph) are occurring or predicted to occur soon. The wi ...
s for sea vessels navigating the
Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...
and
Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...
s, to HF band "time stations" WWV and
WWVH WWVH is the callsign of the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology's shortwave radio time signal station located at the Barking Sands Missile Range, in Kekaha, on the island of Kauai in the state of Hawaii. WWVH is the Pacific si ...
. These shortwave radio stations continuously broadcast
time signal A time signal is a visible, audible, mechanical, or electronic signal used as a reference to determine the time of day. Church bells or voices announcing hours of prayer gave way to automatically operated chimes on public clocks; however, a ...
s and disseminate the "official" U.S. Government time, and are operated by the Department of Commerce's
National Institute of Standards and Technology The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into physical s ...
.


Radio

The radio service transmits weather and marine forecasts (where applicable) and other related information, without any interruptions. In addition, NWR works in cooperation with the FCC's
Emergency Alert System The Emergency Alert System (EAS) is a national warning system in the United States designed to allow authorized officials to broadcast emergency alerts and warning messages to the public via cable, satellite, or broadcast television, and bot ...
(EAS), providing comprehensive severe weather alerts and civil emergency information. In conjunction with federal, state and local emergency managers and other public officials, NWR has the ability to broadcast alerts and post-event information for all types of hazards, including natural (such as
earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, fr ...
s or
avalanche An avalanche is a rapid flow of snow down a slope, such as a hill or mountain. Avalanches can be set off spontaneously, by such factors as increased precipitation or snowpack weakening, or by external means such as humans, animals, and eart ...
s), human-made (such as chemical releases or oil spills), technological (such as nuclear power plant emergencies) and other public safety (such as "
AMBER alert An Amber Alert (alternatively styled AMBER alert) or a child abduction emergency alert ( SAME code: CAE) is a message distributed by a child abduction alert system to ask the public for help in finding abducted children. The system originated in ...
s" or 9-1-1 telephone outages). Listening to a NOAA Weather Radio station requires a VHF radio receiver or scanner capable of receiving at least one of seven specific VHF-FM channels within the
frequency Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit of time. It is also occasionally referred to as ''temporal frequency'' for clarity, and is distinct from ''angular frequency''. Frequency is measured in hertz (Hz) which is eq ...
range of 162.400 through 162.550 MHz, collectively known as the "Weather Band". For example, a receiver that only tunes in standard AM or FM broadcast stations will not suffice.


Television

Many
cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with bro ...
systems and some commercial
television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the eart ...
s will, during EAS activation, rebroadcast the audio of a warning message first heard on their local NWR station, to alert viewers of a severe weather event or civil emergency, usually with the issuance of a
tornado warning A tornado warning ( SAME code: TOR) is a severe weather warning product issued by regional offices of weather forecasting agencies throughout the world to alert the public when a tornado has been reported or indicated by weather radar within the ...
or
tornado emergency A tornado emergency is an enhanced version of a tornado warning, which is used by the National Weather Service (NWS) in the United States during imminent, significant tornado occurrences in highly populated areas. Although it is not a new warning ...
, especially in tornado-prone areas of the country.


Programming


Broadcast schedule

Local NOAA offices update the content broadcast over NOAA Weather Radio transmitters on a regular basis, according to the following schedule: Updates to routine observational products are typically recorded once per hour, and are broadcast at five or 10, and at 15 minutes past the hour.


Broadcast routine

As a continuous spoken weather service, NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards maintains a multi-tier concept for relaying meteorological observations, routine forecasts and weather hazards to the general public. Actual forecasts and offered products vary by the area serviced by the transmitter. During severe weather situations, Watch Information Statements for government-designated jurisdictions served by the local NWR station are typically inserted within the station's normal playlist of routine products; a special severe weather playlist temporarily suspends most regularly scheduled routine products in the event National Weather Service-issued warnings (mainly
severe thunderstorm A thunderstorm, also known as an electrical storm or a lightning storm, is a storm characterized by the presence of lightning and its acoustic effect on the Earth's atmosphere, known as thunder. Relatively weak thunderstorms are somet ...
, tornado or flash flood warnings) are in effect for the station's broadcast area, which solely incorporate watch, warning and Special Weather Statements, and any active Short-Term Forecasts and Hazardous Weather Outlooks. These are additional products that are included in the broadcast cycle occasionally (but are broadcast at randomized times, depending on the individual transmitter : * Air Quality Index Statement * Agricultural Forecast * Area Forecast Discussion * Area Weather Update * Daily/Monthly Hydrometeorological Products * Heat Index Forecast * High Seas Forecast * Hydro-Met Data Report * Miscellaneous Hydrologic Data * Miscellaneous Local Product * Miscellaneous River Product * Public Information Statement * Offshore Forecast * Quantitative Precipitation Forecast * State Forecast * Suppression Forecast * Tabular State Forecast * Terminal Aerodrome Forecast * Travellers Forecast


Weather radio receivers

There are a variety of different types of weather radio receivers available in the U.S., including: * Professional-grade receivers, typically rack-mounted, for use by broadcast radio and television stations and public agencies who are responsible for acting on or retransmitting weather and emergency alert broadcasts. * Base-station consumer radios powered by commercial AC power (often with a battery backup). * Hand-held battery powered radios, suitable for use by hikers, boaters, and in emergency preparedness kits. * Hand-crank portable radios that do not require AC or battery power, especially designed for use in emergency preparedness kits. * Weather radio receivers integrated as an auxiliary function into other devices, such as GMRS radios, portable televisions, FM radios, etc. * Radio receiver modules, such as the Si4707 from
Silicon Labs Silicon Laboratories, Inc. (Silicon Labs) is a fabless global technology company that designs and manufactures semiconductors, other silicon devices and software, which it sells to electronics design engineers and manufacturers in Internet of Th ...
, designed for electronics experimenters and project builders have in the past been available. Historically, it was not uncommon to sell portable radios that featured AM, FM, and TV audio (VHF channels 2–13), with the weather band included some distance down the dial from TV channel 7 (after the U.S. digital TV conversion, the television sound function of these radios became obsolete). One of the early consumer weather alert radios (model KH6TY) was designed and manufactured by Howard (Skip) Teller, who was issued a patent on the alerting mechanism and was instrumental in the design of the
PSK31 PSK31 or " Phase Shift Keying, 31 Baud", also BPSK31 and QPSK31, is a popular computer-sound card-generated radioteletype mode, used primarily by amateur radio operators to conduct real-time keyboard-to-keyboard chat, most often using frequencies ...
Digipan software and hardware, and the Amateur radio NBEMS emergency communications system. Since April 2004, radio models marketed as "Public Alert-certified" must include these features and meet certain performance criteria, as specified in electronics industry standard CEA-2009. The price of a consumer-grade weather radio varies depending on the model and its extra features.


Radio frequencies used

The United States' NWS, Canada's Weatheradio, Mexico's SARMEX and Bermuda operate their government weather
radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radi ...
s on the same
marine VHF radio Marine VHF radio is a worldwide system of two way radio transceivers on ships and watercraft used for bidirectional voice communication from ship-to-ship, ship-to-shore (for example with harbormasters), and in certain circumstances ship-to-a ...
band Band or BAND may refer to: Places *Bánd, a village in Hungary *Band, Iran, a village in Urmia County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Band, Mureș, a commune in Romania *Band-e Majid Khan, a village in Bukan County, West Azerbaijan Province, I ...
, using FM transmitters, and the same seven frequencies (162.400 – 162.550 MHz) as NOAA Weather Radio (NWR). Bermuda only uses 162.550 (land) and 162.400 (marine). NWR transmitters operate VHF-FM between 5–1,000 watts. NWR channels operating in the range of 162.3625–162.5875 MHz (162.4–.55 ± 37.5 kHz) have a band spacing of 25 kHz may have bandwidths up to 16 kHz. The original "weather" frequency used by multiple stations was 162.550 MHz, followed by 162.400 in 1970, 162.475 in 1975, and the last four (162.425, 162.450, 162.500 & 162.525 MHz) in 1981. 163.275 MHz was used by KHB47 in New London, Connecticut initially in 1969 until switching to 162.400 in 1970 to avoid overlapping with KWO35 in New York, and internally by NWS in case of power outage, but is no longer in active use. 169.075 MHz was initially used by WWG75 transmitting from Mt. Haleakala on Maui in 1970 before also switching to 162.400 by 1972.


Channel designations

NOAA Weather Radio,
Weatheradio Canada Weatheradio Canada (french: Radiométéo Canada) is a Canadian weather radio network owned and operated by Environment and Climate Change Canada's Meteorological Service of Canada division that is an official partner of the U.S. National Weathe ...
and SARMEX all refer to the seven stations by their frequencies (MHz): Other channel designations such as WX1 through WX7 "have no special significance but are often designated this way in consumer equipment" and "other channel numbering schemes are also prevalent/possible" according to NOAA and
USCG The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mu ...
. Ordering channels by when they were established (WX1, WX2, ...) is "becoming less 'popular' over time than a numerical ordering of channels." Weather radios may list stations in the order of their WX#, or by a "Preset Channel" number 1 thru 7 in ascending frequency order. The "WX#" format is continued from WX8 up to WX12 on some lists and radios to include 163.275 MHz and or one or more of the Canadian continuous marine broadcast (CMB) frequencies 161.650, 161.775, 161.750, 162.000. Unlike WX1-WX7 typically ordered by frequency adoption by NWS, there is no consistent frequency inclusion nor assignment for WX8-WX12. Effective January 1, 2019, channels 2027 (161.950 MHz, 27B) and 2028 (162.000 MHz, 28B) are designated as ASM 1 and ASM 2 respectively for application specific messages (ASM) as described in Recommendation ITU-R M.2092. The "WX" arose from the Morse code prosign shorthand for weather reports (WX) combined with the order number that the seven frequencies were adopted for use nationally. More frequencies helped prevent
interference Interference is the act of interfering, invading, or poaching. Interference may also refer to: Communications * Interference (communication), anything which alters, modifies, or disrupts a message * Adjacent-channel interference, caused by extr ...
from other nearby transmitters, growing in use in the 1990s in less-populated
rural In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are descri ...
, areas and as fill-in
broadcast translator A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater (two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or tran ...
s relaying an existing station or sending a separate, more localized broadcast into remote or
mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually highe ...
ous areas, or those areas with reception trouble. As with conventional broadcast television and radio signals, it may be possible to receive more than one of the seven weather channels at a given location, dependent on factors such as the location, transmitter power,
range Range may refer to: Geography * Range (geographic), a chain of hills or mountains; a somewhat linear, complex mountainous or hilly area (cordillera, sierra) ** Mountain range, a group of mountains bordered by lowlands * Range, a term used to i ...
and designated coverage area of each station. The NWS suggests that users determine which frequency (as opposed to channel) is intended for their specific location so that they are assured of receiving correct and timely information.


Present day

All seven NWR channels are available on stand-alone weather radio receivers that are currently sold online and in retail stores (available for prices ranging from US$20 and up), as well as on most
marine VHF radio Marine VHF radio is a worldwide system of two way radio transceivers on ships and watercraft used for bidirectional voice communication from ship-to-ship, ship-to-shore (for example with harbormasters), and in certain circumstances ship-to-a ...
transceiver In radio communication, a transceiver is an electronic device which is a combination of a radio ''trans''mitter and a re''ceiver'', hence the name. It can both transmit and receive radio waves using an antenna, for communication purposes. Thes ...
s, amateur radios and digital scanners. In addition, more mainstream consumer electronics, such as
clock radio An alarm clock (or sometimes just an alarm) is a clock that is designed to alert an individual or group of individuals at a specified time. The primary function of these clocks is to awaken people from their night's sleep or short naps; they ar ...
s, portable multi-band receivers and two-way radios (such as FRS, GMRS and
CB radio Citizens band radio (also known as CB radio), used in many countries, is a land mobile radio system, a system allowing short-distance person-to-many persons bidirectional voice communication among individuals, using two way radios operating on ...
), now feature the ability to also receive NWR channels. Many of the aforementioned devices also incorporate automatic alerting capabilities. Many American television stations offer discounted pricing for radios to viewers as a public courtesy (especially in highly tornado-prone areas), where they are often marketed as an essential safety device on par with a smoke detector, smoke alarm for home fires.


Coverage

According to NOAA, reliable signal reception typically extends in about 80 to 100-mile radius from a full-power (1,000 W) transmitter, assuming level terrain. However, signal blockages can occur, especially in mountainous areas. As of 2016, there are over a thousand NWR transmitters across the U.S., covering 95% of the population. Because each transmitter can cover several counties, typically a person will program their weather radio to receive only the alerts for their county or nearby surrounding counties where weather systems are most likely to move in from.


Alerting

Whenever a weather or civil emergency alert is issued for any part of a NWR station's coverage area, many radios with an alert feature will sound an alarm or turn on upon detection of a that sounds just before the voice portion of an alert message. The specification calls for the NWS transmitter to sound the alert pitch (music), tone for ten seconds and for the receiver to react to it within five seconds. This system simply triggers the alarm or turns on the radio of every muted receiver within reception range of that NWR station (in other words, any receiver located ''anywhere'' within the transmitter's broadcast area). Generally, receivers with this functionality are either older or basic models. Many newer or more sophisticated alerting receivers can detect, decode and react to a digital signal called
Specific Area Message Encoding Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME) is a protocol used for framing and classification of broadcast emergency warning messages. It was developed by the United States National Weather Service for use on its NOAA Weather Radio (NWR) network, an ...
(SAME), which allows users to program their radios to receive alerts only for specific geographical areas of interest and concern, rather than for an entire broadcast area. These advanced models may also have colored light emitting diode, LED status lights which indicate the level of the alert as an "advisory"/"statement", "watch" or "warning" (either amber or green for advisories and statements, orange or yellow for watches, red for warnings). When an alert is transmitted, the is broadcast first (heard as three repeated audio "bursts"), followed by the 1,050 Hz attention tone, then the voice message, then the end-of-message (EOM) data signal (repeated quickly three times). This encoding/decoding technology has the advantage of avoiding "false alarms" triggered by the 1,050 Hz tone itself in locations outside the intended warning area. Broadcast areas are generally divided into SAME locations by county or marine zone using the standard U.S. Government FIPS county codes. NOAA's SAME alert protocol was later adopted and put into use by the
Emergency Alert System The Emergency Alert System (EAS) is a national warning system in the United States designed to allow authorized officials to broadcast emergency alerts and warning messages to the public via cable, satellite, or broadcast television, and bot ...
(EAS) in 1997 – the replacement for the earlier Emergency Broadcast System (EBS) and even earlier CONELRAD – now required by the FCC for standard broadcast TV and radio stations. Environment Canada eventually integrated SAME alerting capability into its
Weatheradio Canada Weatheradio Canada (french: Radiométéo Canada) is a Canadian weather radio network owned and operated by Environment and Climate Change Canada's Meteorological Service of Canada division that is an official partner of the U.S. National Weathe ...
network in 2004. Organizations are able to disseminate and coordinate emergency alerts and warning messages through NOAA Weather Radio and other public systems by means of the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System. In September 2008, Walgreens announced that it would utilize SAME technology to deliver local weather alerts via a system of LED billboards located outside its drugstore locations to provide an additional avenue of weather information. Many national billboard companies (such as Outfront Media, Clear Channel Outdoor and Lamar Advertising Company, Lamar, among others) also use their color LED billboard networks to display weather warnings to drivers, while state-owned Variable-message sign, freeway notification boards, which utilize the EAS/NOAA infrastructure for AMBER Alerts, also display weather warnings.


Emergency alert test procedure

Every local National Weather Service weather forecast office is required to conduct a scheduled weekly test of the NOAA Weather Radio public alert system, generally occurring every Wednesday between 10:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. (noon). Certain Weather Forecast Offices conduct this twice a week, usually testing two time on Wednesday, usually between 10:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. (noon) and then again between 6:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. Other offices test once on Wednesday, and then again on Saturday. Some NOAA Weather Radio stations also broadcast tests of the
Emergency Alert System The Emergency Alert System (EAS) is a national warning system in the United States designed to allow authorized officials to broadcast emergency alerts and warning messages to the public via cable, satellite, or broadcast television, and bot ...
on predetermined days and times. If there is a threat of severe weather that day in a NWR station's listening area, the weekly test is postponed until the next available fair-weather day (sometimes, a short message stating the reason for the test's cancellation is broadcast). The required weekly test (SAME event code "RWT") interrupts regular NWR programming — during the test, a SAME data header is sent, followed by a 1050 Hz attention tone, the voice test message, then a SAME end-of-message (EOM) signal. The text of the test message used by most NWS offices, with variations depending on the office, is typically as follows:


Voices

From the introduction of NOAA Weather Radio until the late 1990s, nearly all the voices heard in the broadcasts were those of the staff at local
National Weather Service The National Weather Service (NWS) is an agency of the United States federal government that is tasked with providing weather forecasts, warnings of hazardous weather, and other weather-related products to organizations and the public for the ...
(NWS) offices. The messages were manually recorded, first on tape cartridges and later digitally, and then placed in the broadcast cycle. As the NWS added more transmitters to provide broader radio coverage, the staff had difficulty keeping broadcast cycles updated in a timely fashion, especially during major severe weather outbreaks.


System upgrades


1990s Console Replacement System

To manage the increasing number of transmitters for each office and to speed the overall delivery of warning messages to the public, the Console Replacement System (CRS) was deployed at NWS weather forecast offices in 1997. CRS introduced a computerized voice nicknamed "Paul", using a Speech synthesis, text-to-speech system which was based on the
DECtalk DECtalk was a speech synthesizer and text-to-speech technology developed by Digital Equipment Corporation in 1983, based largely on the work of Dennis Klatt at MIT, whose source-filter algorithm was variously known as KlattTalk or MITalk. U ...
technology. This system was chosen over more readily available concatenative synthesis because each forecast, watch and warning requires unique wording to relay the most accurate and relevant information. Concatenation is typically used by telephone companies, banks and other service businesses where a limited vocabulary of recorded words can easily take the place of specific, repetitive phrases and sentences. NOAA Weather Radio broadcasts contain a wide variety of information which changes with the weather. Forecasters need to have many words to choose from when writing their forecasts and warnings for the public. Although CRS greatly enhanced the delivery speed and scheduling of Weather Radio messages, some listeners disliked Paul's voice, as it was very monotone and did not resemble a normal speaking voice due to CRS not having the technological advances at the time to resemble human speech patterns.


2002 Voice Improvement Program

In 2002, the National Weather Service contracted with Siemens, Siemens Information and Communication and
SpeechWorks SpeechWorks was a company founded in Boston in 1994 by speech recognition pioneer Mike Phillips and Bill O'Farrell. The Boston-based company developed and supported speech-related computer software. Originally known as Applied Language Technologi ...
to introduce improved, more natural voices. The Voice Improvement Plan (VIP) was implemented, involving a separate computer processor linked into CRS that fed digitized sound files to the broadcast suite. The improvements involved one male voice ("Craig"), and one female voice ("Donna"). Additional upgrades in 2003 improved "Donna" and introduced an improved male voice nicknamed "Tom", which had variable intonation based on the urgency of the report. As part of this upgrade a Spanish voice, "Javier", was added at a few sites. Due to the superior quality of the "Tom" voice, most NWS offices used it for the majority of broadcasts and announcements.


Broadcast Message Handler

In 2016, the NWS replaced almost all of the CRS systems in operation at its Weather Forecast Offices—which had been in use for over 20 years and were approaching the end of the system's expected service life—with the Broadcast Message Handler (BMH). The new system is more closely integrated with the AWIPS software and intended to be more reliable. The BMH units replaced "Donna" and "Tom" with an improved "Paul" voice (its classification from new voice partner NeoSpeech). Many stations have dubbed him "Paul II" or "Paul Jr" to avoid confusion with CRS "Perfect Paul". For the NWS offices that incorporate Spanish programming into the NWR broadcast cycle, VIP "Javier" was replaced with a much improved female voice named "Violetta" (another voice from NeoSpeech). The upgrade initially began at six offices: Greenville, South Carolina, Greenville-Spartanburg, South Carolina; Brownsville, Texas; Omaha, Nebraska; Portland, Oregon; Anchorage, Anchorage, Alaska; and Tiyan, Guam. Many of the stations saw an initial negative reaction primarily due to many mispronunciations. Most local NWS Offices provide a method of reporting these problems, and have the ability to reprogram the voices accordingly.


Human voices

Human voices are still heard on occasion, but sparingly, mainly during station identifications, public forecasts, National Marine Fisheries Service messages, public information statements, public service announcements, required weekly tests, and severe weather events. The capability exists for a meteorologist to broadcast live on any transmitter if computer problems occur or added emphasis is desired, or to notify listeners who are concerned about a silent (broadcasting), silent station on another frequency whether that station is dark due to technical errors, prolonged power outage, or a weather event has forced it off the air.


Broadcasting-in-Spanish

Some weather forecast offices will issue a secondary report in Spanish language, Spanish during severe weather events or warnings. Few NWR stations broadcast weather information in Spanish. Four WFOs disseminate all content using dedicated stations to be only Broadcast in the Spanish-Language, separate from their English-language Counter Channels: San Diego (WNG712 in Coachella, California, Coachella/Riverside, California, Riverside), El Paso, Texas, El Paso (WNG652), Miami (WZ2531 in Hialeah, Florida, Hialeah, since 2012), and Brownsville, Texas, Brownsville (WZ2541 in Pharr, Texas, Pharr and WZ2542 in Harlingen, Texas, Harlingen, since 2014). These stations originally used a synthesized Spanish male voice named "Javier" for all broadcasts, but have since been upgraded with the BMH female voice "Violetta". The Albuquerque WFO often repeats weather alerts in Spanish after their initial dissemination in English. Station WXJ69 in San Juan, Puerto Rico broadcasts all information, including forecasts, in the same manner. The National Weather Service i
Tampa Bay Area/Ruskin
plays a severe weather programming Station I.D. in the broadcast cycle if an alert is issued for the station warning area using the Spanish Voice, but it plays the English text version of the product, resulting in the Text-To-Speech software reading English text being pronounced in Spanish.


Live streaming

Several websites provide internet audio streaming of a subset of the NOAA Weather radio stations. The most prominent of these, the Wunderadio section of weather information website Weather Underground (weather service), Weather Underground, discontinued live streams of NWR broadcasts in April 2017. As the Wunderadio internet streaming service dissolved, Many sources such a
noaaweatherradio.orgbroadcastify.comweatherusa.net/radio
an
PlanoWeather
developed, allowing previous users of the service to continue monitoring livestreams from Wunderadio, as well as newer broadcasts from different locations.


See also

* Navtex * Severe weather terminology (United States) * Weather radio *
Weatheradio Canada Weatheradio Canada (french: Radiométéo Canada) is a Canadian weather radio network owned and operated by Environment and Climate Change Canada's Meteorological Service of Canada division that is an official partner of the U.S. National Weathe ...


References


External links


NWS Organization
(shows all NOAA offices)
U.S. NOAA/NWS Weatheradio page




* [ftp://ftp.library.noaa.gov/docs.lib/htdocs/rescue/journals/essa_news/QC801E71970v6no38.pdf ESSA News September 11, 1970]


NOAA Weather Radio brochure evolution


"ESSA VHF Weather Radio Stations" Weatherwise magazine, August 1969
* [ftp://ftp.library.noaa.gov/noaa_documents.lib/NOAA_historic_documents/ESSA/ESSA_PI/PI_680033.pdf Marine Weather Services: ESSA VHF Radio Weather, ESSA/PI 680033 1969]
Marine Weather Services: ESSA VHF Radio Weather, ESSA/PI 680033 1970
* [ftp://ftp.library.noaa.gov/noaa_documents.lib/NOAA_historic_documents/NOAA_historical_brochures/Weather/NWS-WeatherRadio1970.pdf NOAA VHF Radio Weather, NOAA/PI 70035, 1970]
NOAA VHF Radio Weather, NOAA/PA 70035, Rev. 1972
* [ftp://ftp.library.noaa.gov/noaa_documents.lib/NOAA_historic_documents/NOAA_historical_brochures/Weather/NWS-MarineWeather-1972.pdf Marine Weather Services: NOAA VHF Radio Weather, NOAA/PA 70029, Rev. 1972] * [ftp://ftp.library.noaa.gov/noaa_documents.lib/NOAA_historic_documents/NOAA_historical_brochures/Weather/NWS-MarineWeatherServices-1974.pdf Marine Weather Services: NOAA VHF Radio Weather, NOAA/PA 70029, Rev. 1974] * [ftp://ftp.library.noaa.gov/noaa_documents.lib/NOAA_historic_documents/NOAA_historical_brochures/Weather/NWS-WeatherRadio-1975.pdf NOAA Weather Radio NOAA/PA 74035, 1975] * [ftp://ftp.library.noaa.gov/noaa_documents.lib/NOAA_historic_documents/NOAA_historical_brochures/Weather/NWS-MarineWeatherServices-1976.pdf Marine Weather Services: NOAA Weather Radio, NOAA/PA 74034, Rev. 1976] * [ftp://ftp.library.noaa.gov/noaa_documents.lib/NOAA_historic_documents/NOAA_historical_brochures/Weather/NWS-WeatherRadio-1976.pdf NOAA Weather Radio, NOAA/PA 76015, 1976]
NOAA Weather Radio, NOAA/PA 76015, Rev. July 1988
* [ftp://ftp.library.noaa.gov/noaa_documents.lib/NWS/Brochures/NOAA_weather_radio_May_1999.pdf NOAA Weather Radio, NOAA/PA 96070 (station list), May 1999]
NOAA Weather Radio, NOAA/PA 200356 (maps), October 2002
* [ftp://ftp.library.noaa.gov/noaa_documents.lib/NWS/Brochures/NWR_all_hazards_Oct_2007.pdf All Hazards NOAA Weather Radio (NWR), NOAA/PA 96070 (no list), October 2007] * [ftp://ftp.library.noaa.gov/noaa_documents.lib/NWS/Brochures/NOAA_weather_radio_April_2014.pdf, NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards (NWR), NOAA/PA 200352 Poster, April 2014]
All Hazards NOAA Weather Radio, NOAA/PA 94062, Rev. January 2020
{{SevWea nav NOAA Weather Radio, 1950s establishments in the United States Disaster preparedness in the United States Emergency Alert System Weather radio National Weather Service Bandplans Types of radios Weather warnings and advisories