New Lower Texas Coastal Zones

Overview

**Note New Date Below**

Effective Tuesday, April 5, 2022, NWS Brownsville/Rio Grande Valley, Texas, will add three new barrier island zones to the Lower Texas coast in Kenedy, Willacy, and Cameron County, and renumber current zones TXZ-256 (Coastal Willacy) and TXZ-257 (Coastal Cameron). The current configuration of six zones for these counties (inland and coastal) will expand to nine zones (inland, coastal, and island). For Cameron County, Boca Chica Beach will be incorporated into the new barrier island zone, even though it is not a barrier island location.

Below are graphics depicting the change. Current (pre-April 5, 2022) coastal zones are on the left; the new coastal and barrier island zones are at right.

Old Lower Texas coastal zones numbers, as of late 2021

Justification

Messaging inconsistencies arise in situations when a hazard may directly impact the barrier island, but not the coastal land areas immediately across the Laguna Madre. Some of the coastal hazards that often only impact the barrier island and Boca Chica Beach, but not the rest of the coastal zone west of the Laguna Madre, include dense sea fog, life-threatening rip currents, and coastal flooding. Conversely, hazards associated with sea breeze convection and temperatures (freeze and heat advisories) are some of the products that may only impact the portion of the current coastal zones west of the Laguna Madre, but not the barrier island or Boca Chica Beach. These situations lead to messaging challenges for the daily forecast and pertinent hazards. The new configuration will allow for better consistency between watches, warnings and advisories that impact the surf zone and the immediate coastal strip that may not affect the coastal counties just west of the Laguna Madre.

The new zone break-outs, as well as the zone renumbering, have been closely coordinated with local partners and customers.

These zone changes require partners and users to take appropriate action to receive the new zone products using the Universal Generic Code (UGC) zone code format (Z) listed in Table 1. Products affected by this change are listed in Table 2.

Table 1: NWS Brownsville/Rio Grande Valley's Affected Public Weather Forecast Zones


Current Zone	Name	Updated Zone Number	Name	Remark
TXZ-251	Inland Kenedy	TXZ-251	Inland Kenedy	Unchanged
TXZ-351	Coastal Kenedy	TXZ-351	Coastal Kenedy	Unchanged
		TXZ-451	Kenedy Island	New/Barrier Island
TXZ-254	Inland Willacy	TXZ-254	Inland Willacy	Unchanged
TXZ-256	Coastal Willacy	TXZ-354	Coastal Willacy	Renumbered; TXZ-256 Retired
		TXZ-454	Willacy Island	New/Barrier Island
TXZ-255	Inland Cameron	TXZ-255	Inland Cameron	Unchanged
TXZ-257	Coastal Cameron	TXZ-355	Coastal Cameron	Renumbered; TXZ-257 Retired
		TXZ-455	Cameron Island	New/Barrier Island

Table 2: NWS Brownsville/Rio Grande Valley's Text Products Affected by the Change

Product Name	Identifier	World Met. Org Header
Tropical Cyclone Watch/Warning	TCVBRO	WTUS84 KBRO
Hurricane Local Statement	HLSBRO	WTUS84 KBRO
Coastal Flood Watch/Advisory/Warning	CFWBRO	WHUS44 KBRO
Flood Watch	FFABRO	WGUS64 KBRO
Non-Precipitation Watch/Warning/Advisory	NPWBRO	WWUS74 KBRO
Winter Weather Watch/Warning/Advisory	WSWBRO	WWUS44 KBRO
Fire Weather Watch/Red Flag Warning	RFWBRO	WWUS84 KBRO
Hazardous Weather Outlook	HWOBRO	FLUS44 KBRO
Public Information Statement	PNSBRO	NOUS44 KBRO
Special Weather Statement	SPSBRO	WWUS84 KBRO
Drought Statement	DGTBRO	AXUS74 KBRO
Hydrologic Outlook	ESFBRO	FGUS74 KBRO
Area Forecast Matrices	AFMBRO	FOUS54 KBRO
Point Forecast Matrices	PFMBRO	FOUS54 KBRO
Tabular State Forecast	SFTBRO	FPUS64 KBRO
Fire Weather Forecast	FWFBRO	FNUS54 KBRO
Zone Forecast	ZFPBRO	FPUS54 KBRO
Surf Zone Forecast	SRFBRO	FZUS54 KBRO
Area Forecast Discussion	AFDBRO	FXUS64 KBRO

If you are affected by these changes, take the appropriate action so your system(s) recognize the new zone (Z) Universal Geographic Codes (UGC) and the new zone alignments. The official NWS designation of the proposed new zones and zone numbers can be found at

www.weather.gov/media/notification/pdf2/scn22-02_weather_forecast_zones_bro.pdf

An updated public zone map shapefile is available for download at:
www.nws.noaa.gov/geodata/catalog/wsom/html/pubzone.htm

An updated fire zone map shapefile is available for download at:
www.nws.noaa.gov/geodata/catalog/wsom/html/firezone.htm

If you have any questions, please contact:

Mike Buchanan

Meteorologist-in-Charge

National Weather Service

Brownsville/Rio Grande Valley

20 S. Vermillion Avenue

Brownsville, TX 78521

956-504-1432 ext. 222

mike.buchanan@noaa.gov

Barry Goldsmith

Warning Coordination Meteorologist

National Weather Service

Brownsville/Rio Grande Valley

20 S. Vermillion Avenue

Brownsville, TX 78521

956-504-1432 ext. 223

barry.goldsmith@noaa.gov

Melinda Bailey

Dissemination Services Program Manager

National Weather Service

Southern Region Headquarters

819 Taylor Street, Room 10A06

Fort Worth, TX 76102

682-703-3770

melinda.bailey@noaa.gov