NOAA Weather Radio is a service of the National Weather Service and provides continuous broadcasts of the latest weather information from the National Weather Service Office in Brownsville, Texas. The weather information is repeated every 4 to 6 minutes and is routinely updated with more frequent updates occuring during severe or rapidly changing weather situations. A wide selection of NOAA weather radios can be found at your nearest electronics store. Remember that weather radios make good gifts and are very useful in remote locations and urban areas where cable...TV and radio access to weather information can be very limited.
Under a January 1975 White House policy statement, NOAA Weather Radio was designated as the sole Government-operated radio system to provide direct warnings into private homes for natural disasters and nuclear attack. This concept is being expanded to include warnings for all hazardous conditions that pose a threat to life and safety.
NOAA Weather Radio currently broadcasts from over 425 transmitters in all fifty states, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam and Saipan. NOAA Weather Radio is directly available to approximately 70 to 80 percent of the U.S. population. The National Weather Service is currently engaged in a program to increase coverage to 95 percent of the population in the future. NOAA Weather Radio is available on seven frequencies in the VHF band, ranging from 162.400 to 162.550 megahertz (MHZ). Listed below are the transmitter locations and associated frequencies serving the NWSO Brownsville, Texas county warning area.
By nature and by design, NOAA Weather Radio coverage is limited to an area within 40 miles of the transmitter. The quality of the broadcast depends on the distance from the transmitter, the local terrain, and the quality and location of the receiver. In general, those using a high quality receiver on flat terrain or at sea can expect reliable reception far beyond 40 miles. Those with standard receivers, surrounded by large buildings in cities and those in mountain valleys may experience a reception distance considerable less than 40 miles.
During severe weather, National Weather Service personnel can interrupt the routine weather broadcasts and insert special warning messages concerning the severe weather. NWS personnel can also add special signals to warnings that trigger an "alerting" feature in specially equipped receivers. This signal activates an audible alarm, indicating that an emergency condition exists within the broadcast area of the transmitter, and alerts the listener to stay tuned for more detailed information. More sophisticated receivers are automatically turned on and set to an audible volume when the alert is received.
In its newest and most sophisticated alerting system to date, the NOAA Weather Radio Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME), digital coding is used to activate only those special receivers programmed for specific emergency conditions in a specifc area, typically a county. SAME can activate specially equipped radio and cable television receivers and provide a short text message that identifies the location and type of emergency. SAME will be the primary activator for the new Emergency Alert System planned by the Federal Communications Commision. These tone features are tested every Wednesday, between 11 am and Noon.
The following is our routine daily program schedule and approximate update times:
Identification Statement - Once every 30 minutes.
Hourly Weather Roundup - 15 minutes past the hour, 24 hours a day.
Short-Term Forecast - 5 am, 11 am, 5 pm, and 9 pm. (More frequent updates are broadcast during more active weather situations.)
The Local and Extended Forecast - 530 am and 530 pm. (Additional updates are broadcast as needed.)
Nearshore and Coastal Waters Forecasts - 530 am and 530 pm. (Additional updates are broadcast as needed.)
Deep South Texas Weather Summary - 10 am to 2 pm. 9 pm to Midnight.
Warnings...Watches...Advisories and Special Weather Statements are broadcast as needed.