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-------- Original Message --------
739
NOUS41 KWBC 181936
PNSWSH
Service Change Notice 13-32
National Weather Service Headquarters Washington DC
336 PM EDT Thu Apr 18 2013
To: Subscribers:
- Family of Services
- NOAA Weather Wire Service
- Emergency Managers Weather Information Network
- NOAAPORT
Other NWS partners and NWS employees
From: Eli Jacks
Chief, Fire and Public Weather Services Branch
Subject: Change to the Federal Information Processing System
(FIPS) Code and the County Form of the Universal
Geographic Code (UGC-C) for the city of Bedford,
VA, Effective July 1, 2013
Effective Monday, July 1 2013, at 0400 AM Eastern Daylight Time
(EDT), 0900 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), the NWS Weather
Forecast Office (WFO) in Blacksburg (RNK), VA, will implement a
change to the Federal Information Processing System (FIPS) code
for the city of Bedford, VA. The FIPS code for the Independent
city of Bedford (515) will no longer be used; the FIPS code for
Bedford County (019) will be used instead. The FIPS code change
is required by the change in status of Bedford, VA, from an
Independent City to town status. On July 1, 2013, Bedford, VA,
will become an incorporated place within Bedford County, VA.
If severe weather is occurring, or forecast to occur, at the
scheduled implementation time, an updated Service Change Notice
(SCN) will be issued announcing a postponement of this change
until Tuesday, July 2, 2013, at 0400 AM EDT, or later if
necessary.
The county form of the Universal Geographic Code (UGC-C) is used
in some NWS products and the county portion of the NOAA Weather
Radio (NWR) Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME) code.
The correct county code is critical for receiving watch, warning
and follow-up products such as tornado and flash flood watches
and warnings. All NWS partners and users and weather radio
owners who receive products covering Bedford, VA, and rely on the
C form of the UCG code, or the NWR SAME county code, must
reprogram their equipment no later than July 1, 2013, to receive
the WFO RNK products listed in Table 1. NWS suggests partners
and users may want to program the new code (019) before July 1,
2013, and retain the current code (515) in their systems until
after July 1. Doing so will make the change transparent on July
1; users will only need to delete the old code (515) after the
implementation.
Table 1. WFO RNK Products Affected by the FIPS Code change for
Bedford, VA, from independent city to town status:
Product Name: WMO Heading: AWIPS ID:
------------ ----------- --------
Tornado Warning WFUS51 KRNK TORRNK
Severe Thunderstorm Warning WUUS51 KRNK SVRRNK
Flash Flood Warning WGUS51 KRNK FFWRNK
Severe Weather Statement WWUS51 KRNK SVSRNK
Flash Flood Statement WGUS71 KRNK FFSRNK
Flood Warning WGUS41 KRNK FLWRNK
Flood Statement WGUS81 KRNK FLSRNK
Watch County Notification WWUS61 KRNK WCNRNK
Watch Outline Update WOUS64 KWNS WOU#
where # is last digit of the watch number between 0 and 9.
NOAA Weather Radio users in the Bedford area, including all
individuals and organizations in the Bedford area (such as media,
law enforcement, emergency management and schools) who own a
weather radio receiver with NWR SAME capabilities and have
programmed in Bedford, VA, as an Independent City, must reprogram
their weather radio receivers to continue to receive warnings for
Bedford, VA, as part of Bedford County, VA. Instructions on
reprogramming your weather radio are in weather radio owners
manuals or available from the manufacturer of your radio, your
local retailer, or online at the radio manufacturers Website.
For your convenience, a list of many weather radio receiver
manufacturers is online at:
www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/nwrrcvr.htm
Other sources of information useful to reprogram your weather
radio receiver include the WFO Blacksburg home page:
www.erh.noaa.gov/rnk
The NWS NOAA Weather Radio SAME code information page: www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/nwrsame.htm A toll-free number provided by the NWS: 1-888-NWR-SAME (1-888-697-7263). An updated county shapefile depicting Bedford, VA, as part of Bedford County and not as an Independent City is online at: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/geodata/catalog/county/html/county.htm Additional information on this and any future NWS implementations of FIPS code changes is online at: www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/nwsfipschg.htm For more information, please contact: David Wert Meteorologist In Charge National Weather Service Blacksburg VA 24060 Phone: 540-552-0084 Email: david.wert@xxxxxxxx Phil Hysell Warning Coordination Meteorologist National Weather Service Blacksburg VA 24060 Phone: 540-552-1613 Ext. 2 Email: phil.hysell@xxxxxxxx National Service Change Notices are online at: http://www.weather.gov/os/notif.htm $$
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