NOAA All Hazards Weather Radio

NOAA Weather Radio is a free public service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The National Weather Service operates a network of NOAA Weather Radio stations across the country, and there are a handful of these stations in Arizona. Our staff prepares the broadcasts for the Phoenix, Yuma,  and Globe stations, and the remaining stations in Arizona are handled by our offices in Flagstaff and Tucson.

NOAA Weather Radio broadcasts are commercial-free, and operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Routine broadcasts prepared by NWS Phoenix include current weather conditions, local and extended forecasts, Arizona weather summaries, and travelers forecasts. Daily climate summaries are also broadcast on the Phoenix station.

During severe weather, our forecasters will interrupt the routine weather programming with special statements and warning messages, bringing you up-to-the-minute information on developing weather situations. In addition, we can trigger specially equipped NOAA Weather Radio receivers to sound an alarm when threatening weather is approaching your community. This feature alone is one of the most important reasons to own a weather radio.

As part of the NWS modernization effort, NOAA Weather Radio had been upgraded across the country. NOAA Weather Radio 2000 was a nationwide system upgrade which included a computer synthesized voice; the first incarnation of this voice was known in some circles as "Sven" due to the rather distinctive "accent". The newest computer voices, known as "Craig" and "Donna" are based on a 'voice-concatenation' technology which provides a superior sounding voice, as compared to 'Sven'. NWR will continue to broadcast all of the National Weather Service information that it has in the past, and because it is automated - severe weather and flood/flash flood warnings will be broadcast immediately without any of the delay that the previous "manual" system involved. Our office has been able to improve the voice and word pronunciation so that the computer's spoken words are more clear; it is unlikely, however, with the current technology, to ever get the synthesized voice to equal a human voice in quality.

The most important feature of NOAA Weather Radio is its capability to tone activate weather radio receivers. This feature can turn on weather radio receivers alerting the listener that severe weather or a flood/flash flood is imminent. The primary mission of the NWS is to issue severe weather warnings to protect life and property. The NOAA Weather Radio upgrade ensures consistent "Alarm" service directly to the public, schools, hospitals, day care centers, and commercial broadcasters.

NOAA Weather Radio broadcasts can not be received on most conventional AM/FM radios; you need a special receiver. These special receivers, which are available from several manufacturers, are available with and without the alerting features discussed above. Some other manufacturers also include the NOAA Weather Radio bands as special features on an increasing variety of receivers. NOAA Weather Radio capability is currently available on some automobile, aircraft, marine, citizens band, and standard AM/FM radios as well as communications receivers, transceivers, scanners, and cable TV. However, if you wish to have the warning alarm feature, your best bet is to purchase a special receiver designed for this purpose.

Special NOAA Weather radios can often be found at an electronics store, or at a local department store. A number of models and styles are available, and prices usually range from around $15 for a basic receiver to over $50 for a high-quality unit. You can generally find a good-quality receiver for around $30 - $40 with a built-in alarm. The National Weather Service does not endorse any particular brand, but we do recommend purchasing one with an alarm feature. Recently newer receivers have been produced that have the ability to take advantage of SAME technology, and these units generally cost up to twice as much as a conventional tone-alert receivers.

By nature and design, NOAA Weather Radio coverage is limited to an area within about 40 miles of the transmitter, but this range will vary somewhat in mountainous regions. A list of transmitting sites in Arizona is provided in the table below. The quality of what is heard is generally dictated by the distance from the transmitter, the terrain, and the quality and location of the receiver. Varying weather conditions can also affect the quality of the received signal. Sometimes, transmitter problems, not range or location, can result in a degraded or inaudible signal. Click " Reporting an NWR Transmitter Problem" to forward your concerns to the appropriate NWR technicians.

You can listen in to selected products from the Phoenix NOAA Weather Radio broadcast cycle, encoded in MP3 format. If you have a Windows Media Player or a RealAudio Player (5.0 or later), then click here to go to our NOAA Weather Radio Broadcast Page.

Official NOAA Weather Radio (NWR) Homepage
NOAA Weather Radio Receiver Consumer Information
Reporting an NWR Transmitter Problem
Information on the proposed automation of NOAA Weather Radio Stations