NWS Working to Change Name and County Code for Oglala Lakota County, SD

With Governor Dennis Daugaard’s proclamation changing the name of Shannon County to Oglala Lakota County, the National Weather Service has started the transition of forecasts, warnings, and other bulletins to the new name.

“This change requires coordination with and action by many entities; including Federal, state and local officials, media, and private weather companies,” said Susan Sanders, Warning Coordination Meteorologist at the Rapid City National Weather Service office.  “To ensure people will continue to receive important weather information, we must give businesses and government agencies sufficient time to reprogram or adjust equipment.  So residents will still hear and see the name Shannon County in warnings and forecasts for another couple of months.”

While the National Weather Service has already identified the steps necessary to change the new name within its dissemination systems, it will work with other agencies that also must take actions to implement the change, including:

•    The U.S. Census Bureau will designate a new county Federal Information Processing Series (FIPS) code. FIPS codes ensure uniform identification of geographic entities through all federal, state and local government agencies. The National Weather Service will provide notice of the new FIPS code to partners who play a vital role in disseminating forecasts and hazardous weather warnings.

•    Companies that manufacture NOAA Weather Radio (NWR) receivers and create graphics used by local and national TV broadcasters will need to change the name and FIPS code in their equipment.

•    Local radio and TV stations and cable TV providers will need to add the new code in their equipment to ensure they can receive weather warnings and emergency messages through the Emergency Alert System (EAS).

•    NWR listeners with programmable Special Area Message Encoding (SAME) receivers will need to manually program the new Oglala Lakota County code into their radios so they can continue to receive storm warnings. They will be able to do this as soon as we announce the new code—they do not need to wait until the day it becomes effective.

After an implementation timeline has been established, the agency will provide a formal notification of the effective date of the name change.