NWS Midland/Odessa NOAA Weather Radio

Back-to-Back Pacific Storms to Impact the West Coast; Heavy Snow in the Central Appalachians

Back-to-back powerful Pacific storm systems to impact the Pacific Northwest and northern California through the end of this week with heavy rain, flooding, strong winds, and higher elevation mountain snow. A strong, long-duration atmospheric river will accompany the Pacific storms, bringing excessive rainfall and flash flooding to southwest Oregon and northwest California through the week. Read More >

General Information

NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards (NWR) is a nationwide network of radio stations broadcasting continuous weather and emergency information directly from a nearby National Weather Service offices. NWR broadcasts National Weather Service warnings, watches, forecasts and other hazard information 24 hours a day.

NOAA Weather Radio is a also an integral component of the Emergency Alert System (EAS). Detailed information about the NWR program can be found on the NWS NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards page.

The NWS office in Midland/Odessa has forecast and warning responsibilities for a large part of west Texas and southeast New Mexico. This area of responsibility consists of 26 counties, encompassing around 50,200 square miles, making it the fourth largest county warning area (CWA) in the United States. According to 2012 Census estimates, around 610,111 people live in our County Warning Area.

Weather Radio Selection and Setup

Legacy weather radios sound an alarm anytime an alert tone (1050 Hz) is received, regardless of the affected area. Most new weather radios are equipped with Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME) technology. These radios can be programmed to produce an alert for one or more counties for certain events.

Not all radios that include SAME technology are alike. Some basic weather radio units with SAME technology are hard-coded to alert for any received SAME code. If there is a desire or need to suppress unwanted SAME alerts, look for a radio that supports selectable alerting of events. For extensive information on weather radio features and manufacturer information, please see the NWS NWR Receiver Consumer Information page. Details concerning SAME technology can be found at the NWS NWR Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME) page.

Each NWR unit will have specific setup instructions. To ensure that your NWR is ready to receive alerts for your area, the following steps are recommended:

Choose an NWR unit that has the desired features. In particular, consider whether the radio should receive all alerts or needs to be programmable (selectable alerting).
Set the NWR unit to the correct frequency, based on county. Refer to the programming information section, below, to ensure that you select a radio frequency providing alerts for your county. Some counties are served by multiple radios. To help determine the best frequency for your area, consider the NWR coverage maps.
Program the NWR unit for the county code or multiple county codes for the area that you want to receive alerts for, again referring to the chart in the information section, below.
For units that support selectable alerting of events, make sure that only the event codes that you are interested in receiving alerts for are enabled. A list of active SAME event codes is located at the bottom of this page.

NOAA Weather Radio Sites

Map of transmitter sites - click to enlarge

NOAA weather radio sites in west Texas and southeast New Mexico:

Site	Frequency	Watts
Alpine, TX	162.550mHZ	1000
Big Spring, TX	162.475mHZ	1000
Guadalupe N.P.	162.525mHZ	1000
Odessa, TX	162.400mHZ	1000
Pecos, TX	162.450mHZ	1000
Seminole, TX	162.425mHZ	1000
Artesia, NM	162.425mHZ	100
Carlsbad, NM	162.475mHZ	100
Maljamar, NM	162.400mHZ	100

Additional Information:
Coverage maps
Outage reporting

Programming Information

If your weather radio is equipped with Specific Area Message Encoder or SAME technology, you can program your radio to receive weather or other emergency information for particular counties. SAME equipped weather radios are programmed using FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standards) codes. Please refer to the following tables of FIPS codes for your county.

Alpine, TX / KJY-69 / 162.550 mHZ

County	FIPS code	County	FIPS code	County	FIPS code
Brewster	048043	Jeff Davis	048243	Presidio	048377

Big Spring, TX / WXK-37 / 162.475 mHZ

County	FIPS code	County	FIPS code	County	FIPS code
Borden	048033	Dawson	048115	Glasscock	048173
Howard	048227	Martin	048317	Midland	048329
Mitchell	048335	Scurry	048415

Guadalupe Mtns. N.P., TX / WZ-2503 / 162.525 mHZ

County	FIPS code	County	FIPS code	County	FIPS code
Culberson	048109	Loving	048301	Reeves	048389

Odessa, TX / WXK-32 / 162.400 mHZ

County	FIPS code	County	FIPS code	County	FIPS code
Andrews	048003	Crane	048103	Ector	048135
Martin	048317	Midland	048329	Upton	048461
Ward	048475	Winkler	048495

Pecos, TX / WNG-695 / 162.450 mHZ

County	FIPS code	County	FIPS code	County	FIPS code
Jeff Davis	048243	Loving	048301	Pecos	048371
Reeves	048389	Ward	048475	Winkler	048495

Seminole, TX / WNG-562 / 162.425 mHZ

County	FIPS code	County	FIPS code	County	FIPS code
Andrews	048003	Dawson	048115	Gaines	048165
Lea	035025	Martin	048317	Terry¹	048445
Yoakum¹	048501

¹ Note: Yoakum and Terry counties are served by NWS Lubbock, TX

Artesia, NM / WXN-24 / 162.425 mHZ

County	FIPS code
Eddy	035015

Carlsbad, NM / WWF-37 / 162.475 mHZ

County	FIPS code	County	FIPS code
Eddy	035015	Lea	035025

Maljamar, NM / WXJ-36 / 162.400 mHZ

County	FIPS code	County	FIPS code
Eddy	035015	Lea	035025

SAME Event Codes

The tables below show weather and non-weather events and their corresponding SAME event codes. SAME codes are not actually transmitted for all potential event types at the present time. Actual events containing SAME codes and the 1050 Hz alert tone may vary by office. These tables should only be used for NWR transmitters programmed by the NWS in Midland/Odessa.

Weather-Related Events

Event	SAME	Uses SAME	Uses SAME +1050 Hz
Blizzard Warning	BZW	Yes	No
Dust Storm Warning	DSW	No	No
Flash Flood Watch	FFA	No	No
Flash Flood Warning	FFW	Yes	Yes
Flash Flood Statement	FFS	No	No
Flood Watch	FLA	No	No
Flood Warning	FLW	No	No
Flood Statement	FLS	No	No
High Wind Watch	HWA	No	No
High Wind Warning	HWW	No	No
Hurricane Watch	HUA	Yes	Yes
Hurricane Warning	HUW	Yes	Yes
Hurricane Statement	HLS	No	No
Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SVA	Yes	Yes
Severe Thunderstorm Warning	SVR	Yes	Yes
Severe Weather Statement	SVS	No	No
Special Weather Statement	SPS	No	No
Tornado Watch	TOA	Yes	Yes
Tornado Warning	TOR	Yes	Yes
Tropical Storm Watch	TRA	Yes	Yes
Tropical Storm Warning	TRW	Yes	Yes
Winter Storm Watch	WSA	No	No
Winter Storm Warning	WSW	No	No

Non-Weather-Related Events (National Codes)

Event	SAME	Uses SAME	Uses SAME +1050 Hz
Emergency Action Notification	EAN	Yes	Yes
Emergency Action Termination	EAT	Yes	No
National Information Center	NIC	Yes	No

Non-Weather-Related Events (State/Local Codes)

Event	SAME	Uses SAME	Uses SAME +1050 Hz
Child Abduction Emergency	CAE	Yes	No
Civil Danger Warning	CDW	Yes	Yes
Civil Emergency Message	CEM	Yes	Yes
Earthquake Warning	EQW	Yes	Yes
Evacuation Immediate	EVI	Yes	Yes
Fire Warning	FRW	Yes	Yes
Hazardous Materials Warning	HMW	Yes	Yes
Law Enforcement Warning	LEW	Yes	Yes
Local Area Emergency	LAE	Yes	No
911 Telephone Outage Emergency	TOE	Yes	No
Nuclear Power Plant Warning	NUW	Yes	Yes
Radiological Hazard Warning	RHW	Yes	Yes
Shelter in Place Warning	SPW	Yes	Yes
Volcano Warning	VOW	Yes	Yes

Administrative

Event	SAME	Uses SAME	Uses SAME +1050 Hz
Administrative Message	ADR	Yes	No
National Periodic Test	NPT	Yes	No
Network Message Notification	NMN	Yes	No
Practice/Demo Warning	DMO	Yes	No
Required Monthly Test	RMT	Yes	No
Required Weekly Test	RWT	Yes	Yes