NOAA Same & FIPS Codes ?

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BOBRR

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Hello,

In Sentinel, Edit Profiles, the WX Tab, there are boxes for
entering the NOAA SAME Codes; a few of them I guess that are near your location.

Fine, I can find my SAME Code(s) without any problem.

But what, if anything do I put in the 8 Boxes for the FIPS Codes ?
Do I need them at all ? Why ?

Each SAME Code seems to have 8 FIPS boxes associated with it ?

Could someone explain this, please.

Thanks,
B.
 

UPMan

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Don't know what you mean by the SAME codes. I don't see anything labeled that in Sentinel.

For each SAME entry, you give it a name and assign up to 8 FIPS codes associated with that entry. A FIPS code is the location identifier for the area to be included. For example, all of Tarrant County, TX would be FIPS 048439.
 

greggk

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The acronym SAME stands for Specific Area Message Encoding.

Its just a name to which the FIPS codes fall under.

Greg
 

greggk

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By the way, some counties may have more than one FIPS codes. In large counties, a listener who lives in the far south of a state might not want to hear the far northern end, etc., so several FIPS could be assigned.

FWIW. Your mileage may vary.

Greg
 

bob-k

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makes sense but!

Don't know what you mean by the SAME codes. I don't see anything labeled that in Sentinel.

For each SAME entry, you give it a name and assign up to 8 FIPS codes associated with that entry. A FIPS code is the location identifier for the area to be included. For example, all of Tarrant County, TX would be FIPS 048439.

I looked up youe same code and as you stated its correct! My question is why does it ask for 8 code? Or is this for a large area covers by multible SAME Codes I sent a pic of myy set up is it right for Maryland?
 

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UPMan

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There is no reason to enter the same FIPS code multiple times for the same entry.
 

RF23

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In addition to what Greg said, multiple FIPS codes can also be used to give you a “heads Up” of approaching serious weather.

I have the FIPS codes for the adjacent counties that are southwest, west, & northwest of me. If they are having tornadoes chances are those tornadoes will soon be here. This gives me time to get all the needed materials into my EF-5 Tornado shelter.
 

hiegtx

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In addition to what Greg said, multiple FIPS codes can also be used to give you a “heads Up” of approaching serious weather.

I have the FIPS codes for the adjacent counties that are southwest, west, & northwest of me. If they are having tornadoes chances are those tornadoes will soon be here. This gives me time to get all the needed materials into my EF-5 Tornado shelter.
That's essentially what I do. I'm in Dallas County. So, besides Dallas, I include the counties to my south, southwest, west, and Northwest, as these are directions our severe weather normally comes from. Gives me a little advance warning time, in case I need to get things under cover for an approaching storm system.
 

smithken

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I looked up youe same code and as you stated its correct! My question is why does it ask for 8 code? Or is this for a large area covers by multible SAME Codes I sent a pic of myy set up is it right for Maryland?

It depends on how you want to set things up. I live in the north-west part of my county so I have my county in FIPS1, the county to my north in FIPS2 and the county to my west in FIPS3, one name, 3 counties.
 

INDY72

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For me.. I have it set for the Counties due South, Southwest, West, Northwest, North of me and my County. This way I have advanced warnings of systems moving into my area as this is where they come from. Using this, and scanning the areas alongside Intellicast... I can do an detailed tracking and so on...
Why not Easterly you ask? Because it is EXTREMELY RARE for any weather system to move from East to West ... I think I have seen that phenomenon maybe 2 times in 45 years of life. Not counting Tropical Systems as they are rather unique in how they act.

80 % of NON TROPICAL weather systems travel Westerly to Easterly. Usually the storms in them travelling Southwest to Northeast. Then you have the other big chunk of storms that moves Due East out of the West, Due South out of the North, or Due North out of the South. A smaller set that is the Northwest to Southeast variant, and the maybe 1 % that are the extreme oddball and go from East to West. And those are usually the scariest as they do not follow the usual formulas of nature!

Tropical Weather Systems are a complete other animal.

Oh yes... FUTURE.. NOAA NWS is adding those extended location codes onto the FIPS for EXACT LOCATION... Like say for an specific Town in an County, or area. They already have event codes down to almost any potential situation to give very detailed alerts for the SAME system. Last I heard, implementation sometime near 2020?
 
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kh6sz

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I use SAME codes in all my weather radios here, the one downstairs has my county as well as all neighboring counties, but the one in the bedroom is just set for my county, so as not to wake me up with something not close.

Those future codes sounds like it will be real nice. Here we get lots of storms and many times a storm will go over our heads and cause havok then. I feel safer going to bed at night with the radios going.
 

One13Truck

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Oh yes... FUTURE.. NOAA NWS is adding those extended location codes onto the FIPS for EXACT LOCATION... Like say for an specific Town in an County, or area. They already have event codes down to almost any potential situation to give very detailed alerts for the SAME system. Last I heard, implementation sometime near 2020?

This will be wonderful!!! My county really should be broken into a north and a south but still only has one code for the whole county. And our local weather office never sends small range alerts. I got so annoyed at hearing us be included in alerts for weather happening ONLY in New York State or other parts of Pa that I just turned it off on the scanner and decided to rely on the phone weather apps to alert me. I can shake my head and close the alert out in half a second a lot easier than resetting the scanner.

It's not a user stupidity thing on my part. I do use it when I travel and it works fine. Just not here. A more localized alerting system will be very welcomed by me.
 

INDY72

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Here they make the announcements for portions of areas, but can not SAME alert that way yet. When NWS puts out say a Severe TS Warning, they no longer say for just X County, unless the whole County is threatened. If the threat is only going to brush say an corner of the County, they have to SAME and 1050 Hz alert for the whole County, but the oral alert is (NWS XXX has issued an Severe TS Warning for extreme Northwest ABC County, and Southwest XYZ County until.....) Once the new system is implemented, they will be able to SAME alert for just that area, not just say it once the whole County alerts have popped off. Hooray for more pinpoint forecasting and alerting technology! :) Now if the EMAs, OEPs, OEMs etc can get a system in place that they can only sound say warning sirens in a specific area instead of the entire County they protect.... They worry hardcore about not panicking the populace with unnecessary siren sounding, so they are VERY hesitant in some places to turn on a siren unless its a tornado in your face. That would make things a lot better and not cause any ignoring of the siren due to it not meaning anything for some people etc... Our situation here is a tad complicated due to overuse of the warnings, then cutting back to specific ABC must happen to turn them on.. To now if it looks like its a threat use it due to recent public events having casualties from weather... For details I can PM you etc...
 
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bob-k

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I asked same about SAME

Hello,


Each SAME Code seems to have 8 FIPS boxes associated with it ?

Could someone explain this, please.

Thanks,
B.

It appears some cities have multible SAME code due to their size. If your area of coverge doesn't just put name of city were it currently it says SAME 0 if you like and put SAME code into first FIPS box your set!
 

CFDQ1

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Is this something you have to leave your scanner on or will it alert you of weather alerts while you are doing normal scanning of like police or fire?
 
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