Severe Weather

How to Use a Weather Radio Effectively

A NOAA weather radio is most useful when it's programmed correctly and you know what the alerts mean. Here's how to get there.

NOAA weather radio on a shelf with emergency supplies

Most weather radios receive NOAA's 24-hour forecast stations automatically. But the real value comes from SAME (Specific Area Message Encoding) alerts — which allow you to program your radio to only sound for your specific county.

Without SAME programming, your radio will alert for every watch or warning in your region — which creates alert fatigue. Programming takes about 10 minutes and makes the radio dramatically more useful.

Next StepsUse the guides and free checklists below to keep building.

Emergency Radios
Emergency Radio Guide