National Weather Service - Product Dissemination

Product Dissemination

NOAA Weather Radio All-Hazards (NWR), sometimes called Weatheradio (though this is actually a trademark of receiver manufacturer Tandy), is a special radio system that transmits weather warnings and forecasts 24 hours a day across most of the United States. The system, owned and operated by the NWS, consists of more than 900 transmitters, covering all 50 states, adjacent coastal waters, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the U.S. Pacific Territories. NWR requires a special radio receiver or scanner capable of picking up the signal. It is broadcast on seven frequencies centered around 162 MHz in the VHF frequency band. In recent years, national emergency response agencies such as FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security have begun to take advantage of NWR's ability to efficiently reach a large portion of the population. The system is now used to broadcast civil and natural emergency information in addition to that relating to weather.

NOAA Weather Wire Service (NWWS) is a satellite data collection and dissemination system operated by the National Weather Service. Its purpose is to provide state and federal government, commercial users, media, and private citizens with timely delivery of meteorological, hydrological, climatological, and geophysical information. All products in the NWWS datastream are prioritized, with weather and hydrologic warnings receiving the highest priority (watches are next in priority). NWWS delivers severe weather and storm warnings to users in 10 seconds or less from the time they are issued, making it the fastest delivery system available. Products are broadcast to users via the AMC-4 satellite.

EMWIN is the Emergency Managers Weather Information Network, a system designed to provide the emergency management community with access to a set of NWS warnings, watches, forecasts, and other products at no recurring cost. It can receive data via radio, internet, or a dedicated satellite dish, depending on the needs and capabilities of the user.

The NOAAPORT broadcast system provides a one-way broadcast communication of NOAA environmental data and information in near real time to NOAA and external users. This broadcast service is implemented by a commercial provider of satellite communications utilizing C-band.

The Weather.gov website is a data rich website operated by NWS that serves as a portal to hundreds of thousands of webpages and more than 300 different NWS websites. From the homepage, it is possible to enter a city and state to get a local forecast page, view a rapidly updated map of active watch and warnings, and select areas related to graphical forecasts, national maps, radar displays, rivers, air quality, satellite images and climate. Also offered are xml data feeds of active watch and warnings, ASOS observations and digital forecasts for 5x5 kilometer grids.

The Interactive Weather Information Network (IWIN) was an internet site operated by the NWS that has been superseded by the weather.gov site.

Since 1983, the NWS has provided external user access to U.S. Government obtained or derived weather information through a collection of data communication line services called the Family of Services (FOS). FOS is accessible via dedicated telecommunications access lines in the Washington, D.C., area. All FOS data services are driven by the NWS Telecommunication Gateway computer systems located at NWS headquarters in Silver Spring, MD. Users may obtain any of the individual services from NWS for a one-time connection charge and an annual user fee.

Every NWS office operates its own web page with access to current products and other information specific to the local area.