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NOAA Weather Radio provides continuous broadcasts direct from your local office of the National Weather Service, which is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the U.S. Department of Commerce. NOAA Weather Radio broadcasts the latest weather information on seven frequencies in the 162.40 to 162.55 MHz range and in many cases can be received up to 40 miles from the transmitter. In the Mobile NWS Office Forecast Area, NOAA Weather Radio transmitters serve a total of 29 counties in Southeast Mississippi, Southwest Alabama and Northwest Florida.

Regular broadcasts are tailored to the needs of the people that live within the listening area of a transmitter. During hazardous weather situations, though, regular programming will be interrupted to provide up-to-date information, watches, or most importantly, warnings. A special tone, which automatically triggers weather radio receivers with an "alert" feature, can also be used to alert the listener of a dangerous weather situation.

In addition to the regular alarm tone which sounds the alarm within the entire transmitter listening area encompassing multiple counties, we now generate a SAME (which is short for Specific Area Message Encoder alarm), allows you to select only the county or counties you want to be alerted for. The SAME alert system therfore allows you to program your receiver for a specific county or for multiple counties, thus eliminating alerts for counties you are not concerned about. As a result, SAME is one of the primary activators of the new Emergency Alert System, which replaces the Emergency Broadcast System. SAME equipped receivers are available to the general public from local radio supply stores at a cost ranging typically from $50 to $100 per unit. These units are useful in that you are only alerted (or awakened) for warnings that will affect only the county or counties you designate.

Under a January 1975 White House policy statement, NOAA Weather Radio was designated the sole Government-operated radio system to provide direct warnings into private homes for both natural disasters and nuclear attack.

If you have a question about NOAA Weather radio, the information broadcast over NOAA Weather Radio, or the Specific Area Message Encoder (SAME) don't hesitate to contact Gary Beeler, Warning Coordination Meteorologist here at the National Weather Service in Mobile.

The National Weather Service Office in Mobile currently broadcasts continuous weather information to parts of Southeast Mississippi, South Alabama, and the Western Florida Panhandle on the following stations and frequencies:
 

Here's a link detailing NOAA Weather Radio stations and frequencies across the Southern United States.

Already got a "SAME NWR" and want the PROGRAMMING CODES for your county?
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