Hazard alerts are transmitted with Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME) data, which includes:
- Nature of the alert
- Hazard level
- Affected counties
- Expiration time
Receivers that can decode the SAME data can filter alerts by area and/or hazard level and show details about the alert on a display. For a table of all the alerts and the code meanings,
click here.
FIPS Codes
The US National Weather Service uses 6-digit Federal Information Processing System (FIPS) codes to issue hazard alerts in specific areas. You can choose which areas you want to hear alerts for by programming the appropriate FIPS codes into your receiver: the receiver only sounds the alert tone if an incoming FIPS code matches one of the areas you entered.
Each county (or parish, etc.) is designated by a 5-digit FIPS code; parts of a county are marked by a section code inserted at the front:
| Code |
Country area |
| 0 |
Entire County (default) |
| 1 |
Northwest |
| 2 |
North Central |
| 3 |
Northeast |
| 4 |
West Central |
| 5 |
Central |
| 6 |
East Central |
| 7 |
Southwest |
| 8 |
South Central |
| 9 |
Southeast |
- Very few counties are large enough to use the section code; most counties just code all hazards as 0 for the entire county.
- If you use 0 for the section code, you will receive all alerts for that county regardless of the transmitted section code (because the entire county includes all sections of the county).
- If you use any other section code, you will only receive alerts for that section and entire county alerts. For example, if you program the section code as 5 (Central), you will receive alerts transmitted with section code 0 and section code 5. You will not receive alerts that are transmitted with section codes 1 through 4 or 6 through 9.
For a complete index of the FIPS codes used in SAME broadcasts, see the
United States and Territories Table at the National Weather Radio website, or call
1-888-NWR-SAME (1-888-697-7263) for a voice menu.