NOAA Weather Radio Information

WFO Blacksburg's Forecast Listening Areas

Weather information can also be obtained by listening to NOAA Weather Radio. NOAA Weather Radio stations broadcast the latest weather information and are one of the primary means for receiving severe weather information and general forecast information. Weather radios can be purchased from local electric supply dealers, and some scanners are equipped to pick up the weather radio frequencies.

Some models have an alarm feature. This feature sounds a tone and turns on the radio when we activate the tone alert from our office. We normally send the Routine Weekly Test message around noon on Wednesdays, unless severe weather is a possibility. If there is a possibility of severe weather, we postpone the test until the next fair weather day, usually Thursday.

We activate the tone alert for the following watches or warnings:

• Tornado watch
• Tornado warning
• Severe thunderstorm watch
• Severe thunderstorm warning
• Flash flood warning

If the following weather situations evolve quickly, the following warnings or statements may also be "toned".

• River flood warning
• Blizzard warning
• Winter storm warning
• Severe weather statements

Newer weather radios that are equipped with SAME (Specific Area Message Encoder) are available.  This allows you to program your radio to receive the tone warning alert only for the counties you program!  In addition, you can hear the latest forecasts and other weather information.  

Generally, our NWR program consists of a local  forecast,  local hourly weather and the regional weather summary.

During certain times of the day, we record climate and river information. We record these programs for three transmitters.

NOAA Weather Radio News

 Station Listings and Coverage

NOAA Weather Radio Coverage Maps

NWR SAME program

County-by-County SAME codes

Reporting an NWR Transmitter Problem

NWR Consumer Information

Automated Voices