National Weather Service United States Department of Commerce

Critical Fire Weather in Southern New England; Heavy Rain and Mountain Snow for the Northwestern U.S.

Red Flag Warnings have been reissued today for southern New England due to more critical fire weather from gusty winds and dry fuels. An Atmospheric River will bring a marginal risk for heavy to excessive low elevation rain and mountain snow to the Pacific Northwest and northern California today into at least Thursday night. Read More >

General Information

 
 

NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards (NWR) is a nationwide network of radio stations broadcasting continuous weather and emergency information directly from a nearby National Weather Service offices. NWR broadcasts National Weather Service warnings, watches, forecasts and other hazard information 24 hours a day.

NOAA Weather Radio is a also an integral component of the Emergency Alert System (EAS). Detailed information about the NWR program can be found on the NWS NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards page.

The NWS office in Midland/Odessa has forecast and warning responsibilities for a large part of west Texas and southeast New Mexico. This area of responsibility consists of 26 counties, encompassing around 50,200 square miles, making it the fourth largest county warning area (CWA) in the United States. According to 2012 Census estimates, around 610,111 people live in our County Warning Area.

 

Weather Radio Selection and Setup

 
 

Legacy weather radios sound an alarm anytime an alert tone (1050 Hz) is received, regardless of the affected area.  Most new weather radios are equipped with Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME) technology. These radios can be programmed to produce an alert for one or more counties for certain events.

Not all radios that include SAME technology are alike. Some basic weather radio units with SAME technology are hard-coded to alert for any received SAME code. If there is a desire or need to suppress unwanted SAME alerts, look for a radio that supports selectable alerting of events. For extensive information on weather radio features and manufacturer information, please see the NWS NWR Receiver Consumer Information page. Details concerning SAME technology can be found at the NWS NWR Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME) page. 

Each NWR unit will have specific setup instructions. To ensure that your NWR is ready to receive alerts for your area, the following steps are recommended:

  1. Choose an NWR unit that has the desired features.  In particular, consider whether the radio should receive all alerts or needs to be programmable (selectable alerting). 
  2. Set the NWR unit to the correct frequency, based on county.  Refer to the programming information section, below, to ensure that you select a radio frequency providing alerts for your county.  Some counties are served by multiple radios.  To help determine the best frequency for your area, consider the NWR coverage maps.
  3. Program the NWR unit for the county code or multiple county codes for the area that you want to receive alerts for, again referring to the chart in the information section, below.
  4. For units that support selectable alerting of events, make sure that only the event codes that you are interested in receiving alerts for are enabled.  A list of active SAME event codes is located at the bottom of this page.
 

NOAA Weather Radio Sites

 
 
map of weather radio transmitters

Map of transmitter sites - click to enlarge
NOAA weather radio sites in west Texas and southeast New Mexico:
 
Site Frequency Watts
Alpine, TX 162.550mHZ 1000
Big Spring, TX 162.475mHZ 1000
Guadalupe N.P. 162.525mHZ 1000
Odessa, TX 162.400mHZ 1000
Pecos, TX 162.450mHZ 1000
Seminole, TX 162.425mHZ 1000
Artesia, NM 162.425mHZ 100
Carlsbad, NM 162.475mHZ 100
Maljamar, NM 162.400mHZ 100

Additional Information:
Coverage maps
Outage reporting
 

Programming Information

 
  If your weather radio is equipped with Specific Area Message Encoder or SAME technology, you can program your radio to receive weather or other emergency information for particular counties. SAME equipped weather radios are programmed using FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standards) codes. Please refer to the following tables of FIPS codes for your county.

 
Alpine, TX / KJY-69 / 162.550 mHZ
County
FIPS code
County
FIPS code County
FIPS code
Brewster 048043 Jeff Davis 048243 Presidio 048377
 
Big Spring, TX / WXK-37 / 162.475 mHZ
County
FIPS code
County
FIPS code County
FIPS code
Borden 048033 Dawson 048115 Glasscock 048173
Howard 048227 Martin 048317 Midland 048329
Mitchell 048335 Scurry 048415    
 
Guadalupe Mtns. N.P., TX / WZ-2503 / 162.525 mHZ
County
FIPS code
County
FIPS code County
FIPS code
Culberson 048109 Loving 048301  Reeves  048389
 
Odessa, TX / WXK-32 / 162.400 mHZ
County
FIPS code
County
FIPS code County
FIPS code
Andrews 048003 Crane 048103 Ector 048135
Martin 048317 Midland 048329 Upton 048461
Ward 048475 Winkler 048495    
 
Pecos, TX / WNG-695 / 162.450 mHZ
County
FIPS code
County
FIPS code County
FIPS code
Jeff Davis 048243 Loving 048301 Pecos 048371
Reeves 048389 Ward 048475 Winkler 048495
 
Seminole, TX / WNG-562 / 162.425 mHZ
County
FIPS code
County
FIPS code County
FIPS code
Andrews 048003 Dawson 048115 Gaines 048165
Lea 035025 Martin 048317 Terry1 048445
 Yoakum1  048501        
1 Note: Yoakum and Terry counties are served by NWS Lubbock, TX
 
Artesia, NM / WXN-24 / 162.425 mHZ
County
FIPS code
 
   
 
Eddy 035015        
 
Carlsbad, NM / WWF-37 / 162.475 mHZ
County
FIPS code
County
FIPS code  
 
Eddy 035015 Lea 035025    
 
Maljamar, NM / WXJ-36 / 162.400 mHZ
County
FIPS code
County
FIPS code  
 
Eddy 035015 Lea 035025    
 

 

SAME Event Codes

 
 

The tables below show weather and non-weather events and their corresponding SAME event codes. SAME codes are not actually transmitted for all potential event types at the present time. Actual events containing SAME codes and the 1050 Hz alert tone may vary by office. These tables should only be used for NWR transmitters programmed by the NWS in Midland/Odessa.

 

Weather-Related Events

Event SAME Uses SAME Uses SAME +1050 Hz
Blizzard Warning BZW Yes No
Dust Storm Warning DSW No No
Flash Flood Watch FFA No No
Flash Flood Warning FFW Yes Yes
Flash Flood Statement FFS No No
Flood Watch FLA No No
Flood Warning FLW No No
Flood Statement FLS No No
High Wind Watch HWA No No
High Wind Warning HWW No No
Hurricane Watch HUA Yes Yes
Hurricane Warning HUW Yes Yes
Hurricane Statement HLS No No
Severe Thunderstorm Watch SVA Yes Yes
Severe Thunderstorm Warning SVR Yes Yes
Severe Weather Statement SVS No No
Special Weather Statement SPS No No
Tornado Watch TOA Yes Yes
Tornado Warning TOR Yes Yes
Tropical Storm Watch TRA Yes Yes
Tropical Storm Warning TRW Yes Yes
Winter Storm Watch WSA No No
Winter Storm Warning WSW No No

 

Non-Weather-Related Events (National Codes)

Event SAME Uses SAME Uses SAME +1050 Hz
Emergency Action Notification EAN Yes Yes
Emergency Action Termination EAT Yes No
National Information Center NIC Yes No

 

Non-Weather-Related Events (State/Local Codes)

Event SAME Uses SAME Uses SAME +1050 Hz
Child Abduction Emergency CAE Yes No
Civil Danger Warning CDW Yes Yes
Civil Emergency Message CEM Yes Yes
Earthquake Warning EQW Yes Yes
Evacuation Immediate EVI Yes Yes
Fire Warning FRW Yes Yes
Hazardous Materials Warning HMW Yes Yes
Law Enforcement Warning LEW Yes Yes
Local Area Emergency LAE Yes No
911 Telephone Outage Emergency TOE Yes No
Nuclear Power Plant Warning NUW Yes Yes
Radiological Hazard Warning RHW Yes Yes
Shelter in Place Warning SPW Yes Yes
Volcano Warning VOW Yes Yes

 

Administrative

Event SAME Uses SAME Uses SAME +1050 Hz
Administrative Message ADR Yes No
National Periodic Test NPT Yes No
Network Message Notification NMN Yes No
Practice/Demo Warning DMO Yes No
Required Monthly Test RMT Yes No
Required Weekly Test RWT Yes Yes