NOAA All Hazards Weather Radio is a free public service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The National Weather Service operates a network of NOAA All Hazards Weather Radio stations that are commercial-free, and operate across the country 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Routine products include active weather watches and warnings, current weather conditions, short-term and extended forecasts, and daily climate summaries. The information is updated every one to three hours, and the broadcasts continuously repeat. During severe weather, our staff will interrupt 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 All Hazard Weather Radio receivers to sound an alarm when threatening weather is approaching your community.

On most conventional AM/FM radios, NOAA All Hazards Weather Radio broadcasts cannot be received; you need a special receiver. These receivers, which are available from several manufacturers, come in many sizes and with a variety of functions and costs. They can often be found at electronics and some department stores. Prices usually range from around $15 for a basic receiver to over $50 for a high-quality unit. If you wish to have the warning alarm feature, your best bet is to purchase a special receiver designed for this purpose. To find out more about purchasing a receiver capable of picking up NOAA Weather Radio broadcasts click here.

If you are having problems with your Noaa All Hazards Weather Radio, you can report it here.

By nature and design, NOAA All Hazards Weather Radio coverage is limited to an area within about 40 miles of the transmitter, but this range will vary somewhat in mountainous regions. 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. A nationwide station listing can be found here.

The National Weather Service in Medford has implemented its new voice for its weather broadcast. This new voice can also be heard by calling our phone system at (541) 779-5990. We have had many people call to comment on the new broadcast. Some feedback has been that the voice is "waivery" or in some cases stresses parts of words in random places. We are working on this problem. In time, the voice will sound more human and do a better job pronouncing words correctly. In the long run this new technology will be quite beneficial. It will broadcast the weather in a more timely manner than a human. It will also free up staff to do other duties related to forecasting the weather and sending out warnings. Click here for more information on the automated voice.

If you own a weather radio with the SAME (Specific Area Message Encoder) you need to program your county or counties into the radio. It will then alert you to only the weather or other emergency for the county or counties that you programmed. Older weather radio receivers without the SAME capability will alert you to any emergency anywhere within the coverage area of the NOAA All Hazard weather radio transmitter. The SAME technology can eliminate the appearance of over-warning. To program your SAME weather radio receiver, you need to know the proper code to input for your county or counties that you prefer. You can call a toll-free number to receive these codes. It is 1-888-NWR-SAME (1-888-697-7263). Users will be prompted through a simple voice menu. The Medford weather office operates 5 transmitters located in Medford, Mt. Ashland, Roseburg, North Bend, and Klamath Falls. The Eureka weather office operates a transmitter in Crescent City which can be heard near Brookings. The following are the SAME codes for our area:

• Coos county: 041011
• Curry county: 041015
• Douglas county: 041019
• Josephine county: 041033
• Jackson county: 041029
• Klamath county: 041035
• Lake county: 041037
• Siskiyou county: 006093
• Modoc county: 006049

NOAA All Hazards Weather Radio is currently undergoing a number of innovations. For additional information, visit the national NOAA All Hazards Weather Radio web site.