NOAA Weather Radio

NOAA Weather Radio, known as the "Voice of the National Weather Service," broadcasts continuos weather information 24 hours a day. Recorded weather messages are routinely updated and are tailored to the weather information needs of people within the receiving area. During severe weather, the National Weather Service interrupts the routine broadcasts to provide special warning messages. These special warning messages will automatically activate those receivers equipped with an alarm feature.

The National Weather Service Forecast Office in Salt Lake City issues NOAA Weather Radio broadcasts for seven locations across Utah. In addition, the National Weather Service Office in Grand Junction Colorado issues a NOAA Weather Radio Broadcast for Vernal, making a total of eight broadcasts for Utah. The location and radio frequency of these broadcasts are as follows:

Cache Valley:
Logan 162.400 MHZ

Wasatch Front
South Mountain (Tooele) 162.450 MHZ
Vernon Hills (Tooele) 162.525 MHZ
Salt Lake City 162.550 MHZ

Southwest Utah and Utah's Dixie
Milford/Cedar City 162.400 MHZ
Utah Hill (St. George) 162.475 MHZ

Lake Powell
Navajo Mountain 162.550 MHZ

Uintah Basin
Vernal 162.400 MHZ

These frequencies are not found on the average home radio. However, a number of radio manufacturers offer special weather radios to operate on these frequencies, with or without a warning alarm feature. Also, there are now many radios on the market which offer standard AM/FM frequencies plus the so-called "weather band" as an added feature. NOAA Weather radio broadcasts can usually be heard as far as 40 miles from the antenna site, sometimes more. Terrain plays a big part in determining the strength of the received signal in Utah.

Much of the information for this section originally appeared in the copyrighted book Utah's Weather and Climate, edited by Dan Pope and Clayton Brough, in 1996. UCCW Directors have received permission from the copyright owners of this book to reproduce such information on its website and to revise and updated it where appropriate.