Today’s NOAA Weatheradio Test May Be Postponed

The NWS may not perform its normal weekly test of NOAA Weatheradio today since we are having rain and some embedded thunder. There won’t be any severe weather today, but they may postpone just to make sure no one gets anxious with the rain and clouds around.

They will let us know shortly. This next test will be an important one since they have made a change to the programming from the Mt. Cheaha and Oneonta Transmitters.

Cheaha (162.475 MHz) now will feature programming for Jefferson, Shelby and Coosa Counties. The transmitter for Cheaha works better than the Birmingham transmitter for some folks in northeastern Jefferson County (including me). The Weather Service heard from several customers after last Monday’s tornado that they were in a coverage “hole”. In many cases, they could clearly hear the Cheaha broadcasts but not the Birmingham ones. BMX will now sound alerts for Jefferson, Shelby and Coosa from Cheaha, meaning people in those counties that pick up Cheaha better will have their radios sounds when watches and warnings are issued. Kudos to the NWS BMX for listening to its customers and immediately implementing a change. It will be tested til the end of the year to make sure the programming change does not negatively impact listeners in East Alabama.

Oneonta (162.425 MHz) will now also feature programming and alerts for Jefferson, Walker and Cullman Counties. Listeners in these counties should not change their channel selection on their radios (unless of course the signal from Oneonta is stronger.) This change will mainly serve to give an earlier heads up for folks who program counties further to the west as a heads up or choose ALL on the SAME code choice on their weatherradio.

Category: Alabama's Weather