National Weather Service Fort Worth, Texas Explained

Agency Name:Fort Worth-Dallas, Texas Weather Forecast Office
Jurisdiction:Federal Government of the United States
Headquarters:3401 Northern Cross Blvd, Fort Worth, TX 76137
Coordinates:32.8349°N -97.2987°W
Parent Agency:National Weather Service

The National Weather Service Fort Worth, Texas (NWS Fort Worth) is a local weather forecast office of the National Weather Service responsible for monitoring weather conditions for 46 counties in north central Texas, including the Dallas-Fort Worth Metro Area (the Metroplex) and Waco, Texas.

History

Present day

The current National Weather Service Fort Worth is located at 3401 Northern Cross Blvd, Fort Worth, TX in the northeastern part of Fort Worth, near Meacham International Airport, and is in charge of issuing local forecasts and weather warnings for north central Texas. It is one of 13 National Weather Service offices located in Texas.

The building that the Fort Worth office is located in also houses the West Gulf River Forecast Center, one of 13 in the United States. This office is responsible for the entire river basin between the Sabine River along the Texas-Louisiana border in the east to the Rio Grande River in southern Colorado, New Mexico, and south Texas.[1] Other rivers in the responsibility area of the WGRFC include the Pecos, Nueces, San Antonio River, Guadalupe, Colorado, Brazos, Trinity, and Neches rivers.[2]

NOAA Weather Radio

The Fort Worth Weather Forecast Office maintains thirteen NOAA Weather Radio transmitters across north Texas and far south Oklahoma to transmit routine extended and specialized short-term forecasts, current weather observations, hazardous weather outlooks and historical weather information. Each of the transmitters, through the Emergency Alert System, also disseminate watches, warnings and advisories issued by the NWS office, severe thunderstorm and tornado watches issued by the Storm Prediction Center and other emergency information to the public.

The office schedules a required weekly test of the Specific Area Message Encoding system for public alert dissemination on all thirteen NOAA Weather Radio transmitters in the region each Wednesday between 10:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. and between 6:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. (all times Central); exceptions exist if there is a threat of severe weather that day within the listening area of any or all of the stations, in which case the test will be postponed until the following Wednesday, barring that severe weather is not forecast to occur then.

The Lightning Bolt

Since early 2009, all NOAA Weather Radio Stations within the North Texas region began airing a monthly 15 minute talk show titled "The Lightning Bolt" where two to five listener-submitted questions related to weather are answered by meteorologists, who also would provide weather-related safety tips and trivia.[3]

Stations

Frequency (MHz) Counties served
KEC55 162.550 MHz Bosque, Collin, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Erath, Hill, Hood, Johnson, Parker, Somervell, Tarrant, and Wise
KEC56 162.400 MHz Collin, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Hunt, Kaufman, Rockwall, and Tarrant
KHA99 162.425 MHz Cooke, Denton, Grayson, Montague, and Wise counties in Texas as well as Carter, Jefferson, and Love counties in Oklahoma
KWN31 162.500 MHz Collin, Delta, Fannin, Franklin, Hopkins, Hunt, Kaufman, Rains, Rockwall, Van Zandt, and Wood
KWN33 162.450 MHz Bosque, Brown, Comanche, Eastland, Erath, Hamilton, Hood, Mills, Palo Pinto, Somervell, and Stephens
KWN34 162.450 MHz Anderson, Cherokee, Freestone, Henderson, Houston, Leon, and Navarro
KXI87 162.525 MHz Anderson, Ellis, Erath, Freestone, Henderson, Hill, Kaufman, Limestone, Navarro, and Van Zandt
WNG636 162.500 MHz Brown, Callahan, Comanche, Eastland, Erath, Shackelford, and Stephens
WNG649 162.525 MHz Bell, Brazos, Burleson, Falls, Hill, Lee, Milam, Robertson, and Willamson
WNG651 162.525 MHz Erath, Hood, Jack, Palo Pinto, Parker, Stephens, Tarrant, Wise, and Young
WXK20 162.550 MHz Delta, Fannin, Franklin, Hopkins, Hunt, Lamar, Red River, & Titus counties in Texas and Bryan & Choctaw counties in Oklahoma
WXK22 162.475 MHz Collin, Cooke, Denton, Fannin, and Grayson counties in Texas as well as Bryan, Carter, Johnston, Love, and Marshall counties in Oklahoma
WXK35 162.475 MHz Bell, Bosque, Coryell, Falls, Hamilton, Hill, Lampasas, Limestone, McLennan, Milam, Navarro, and Robertson

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: NWS West Gulf River Forecast Center . 18 July 2016.
  2. Web site: Texas Water Journal-An introduction to the NWS West Gulf River Forecast Center . 18 July 2016.
  3. http://www.srh.noaa.gov/fwd/?n=bolt The Lightning Bolt