Over the course of the past several decades, great advancements have been made in the forecast of weather information and in warning systems to alert affected populations in time to react and take necessary precautions. In addition to outdoor warning siren systems, the Emergency Alert System overrides the transmission signal of commercial radio and television broadcasts to alert the general public. Traditional weather radios receive the weather broadcast signal of the National Weather Service (NWS) and immediately sound an alarm if any emergency code was transmitted along with the broadcast. This means that people who live outside an affected area are often alerted even when their area is not affected, causing many of them to ignore potentially real weather warnings that can save lives.

In 1994, the NWS began broadcasting coded signals called FIPS (Federal Information Processing System) codes along with their standard weather broadcasts. These codes identify an emergency and the specific county or counties affected by the emergency. This advanced technology, Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME) permits the NWS to send digitally coded information for all types of hazards, both natural and technological, and targeted to a specific area. This increases the likelihood that, once alerted, affected populations will immediately react and take appropriate action to save their lives.

Weather radios featuring the advanced SAME technology are typically priced from $50-70 . Such units allow you to program and receive weather watches and warnings on up to 20 FIPS codes corresponding to the locations you want to monitor. The unit will sound an audible alert tone and display the alert message on its alphanumeric display when an alert matching the code is received. Links to manufacturers’ web pages are available on this page.

For the latest information on weather frequencies and FIPS codes used in your area, check the NOAA/National Weather Service website at http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr. You can also call toll-free 1-(888)-NWR-SAME (697-7263) to obtain the FIPS code number(s) for programming your radio. Links are available on this page.