Emergency Management
Just like a smoke alarm – All Hazard/ Weather Radios Can Wake You Up!
Just like a deadly fire in your home, tornadoes may strike when people are sleeping or unaware of the forecast. Just like a smoke alarm, an “All Hazard/ Weather Radio” will alert you to danger providing you the life saving time needed to get to a place of safety.
The “All Hazard/ Weather Radio”, a new generation of NOAA Weather Radio (NWR), receives more than National Weather Service (NWS) information, watches, and warning broadcasts. It can also receive warnings and life-saving information provided by the Emergency Alert System (EAS) such as radiation hazards, chemical spills, and other public safety and health emergency announcements.
The All Hazard/ Weather Radio is designed to stay silent until activated by NWS or EAS using “SAME” technology (Specific Area Message Encoder). All Hazard / Weather Radio owners can easily program a SAME-equipped receiver with a six-digit code for a specific county location. This eliminates the numerous "false alarms" for weather alerts that may apply to an area 40 or 50 miles distant. Multiple county codes can be programmed and memorized to permit storing home and business locations, travel/vacation destinations, and favorite recreational sites. Receivers equipped with “SAME” will be activated to the county and watch/warning types programmed by the owner. SAME (FIPS) Codes are listed by the National Weather Service in Fort Worth, found on the Internet at www.srh.noaa.gov/fwd under Additional Info - Weather Radio. Most radios will reset after the announcement is made returning to silent mode. The radio also has a monitor feature allowing continuous listening.
NOAA Radio Frequencies and County Codes
Bedford, Tarrant, and most surrounding counties – 162.550 MHz
Dallas and most surrounding counties – 162.400 MHz
SAME (Specific Area Message Encoder). equipped weather radios are programmed using FIPS ( Federal Information Processing Standards ) codes . Please refer to the following tables of FIPS county codes:
FORT WORTH NOAA WEATHER RADIO COVERAGE AND COUNTY CODES
| TARRANT – 048439 | DALLAS – 048119 |
| DENTON – 048121 | COLLIN - 048085 |
| WISE – 048497 | BOSQUE – 048035 |
| PARKER – 048367 | HILL – 048217 |
| HOOD – 048221 | ERATH – 048143 |
| ELLIS – 048139 | JOHNSON – 048251 |
| SOMERVELL - 048425 |
Older NOAA Weather Radio models will continue to work as usual. Radios equipped with the conventional warning alarm feature will continue to activate for any storm watches or warnings and for any flash flood warnings issued for any of the designated warning alarm counties within the NWR broadcast area.
Just like smoke alarms, All Hazard/ Weather Radios must be powered “on” and tested regularly. Tests are normally conducted each Wednesday between 10 am and Noon (typically around 11 am) and again between 6 pm and 8 pm (typically around 7 pm) by the National Weather Service in Fort Worth. Should there be a threat of, or existing severe weather, the test will be postponed until the next available good weather day.
All Hazard / Weather Radios are available at many retail stores that sell electronic equipment or marine supplies. They are also available by mail order catalogs and the Internet. Their costs range from $20 to $120 depending on the model. Most run on batteries or have a battery backup.
For more information about the All Hazard / Weather Radio, please contact the Bedford Office of Emergency Management, 817-952-2500 or email