Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mohamed, who comments with an update about the loss of NWS High Seas and Storm Warnings on WWV and WWVH. Mohamed writes:
The decision to terminate the broadcasts has not been retracted. It has only been delayed to January 31, 2019:
(Source: National Weather Service)
NOUS41 KWBC 151610
PNSWSHService Change Notice 18-102
National Weather Service Headquarters Silver Spring MD 1210 PM EST Thu Nov 15 2018To: Subscribers:
-NOAA Weather Wire Service-Emergency Managers Weather Information Network -NOAAPORT
Other NWS Partners, Users and EmployeesFrom: Craig Hodan, Chief Dissemination Systems Branch
Subject: Discontinuation of NWS High Seas and Storm Warnings
over NIST Time Frequency Broadcasts Effective January 31, 2019Effective Thursday, January 31, 2019, at 200 pm Eastern Standard Time (EST) or 1800 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), the NWS will discontinue dissemination of High Seas and Storm Warnings portion of the National Institutes of Science and Technology (NIST) time frequency broadcasts as issued by WWV and WWVH “shortwave” radio covering the Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific.
This service is being terminated because weather information in the current broadcast format does not support frequent enough updates for changes in marine weather and cannot provide enough detail in the allotted window required by mariners to avoid hazardous weather. Additionally, alternative technologies and numerous media outlets that provide weather information in various formats have overtaken the need for providing weather information through the NIST frequency signals.
Other sources of marine weather and high seas alerts and detailed forecasts are available over satellite, telephone, the Internet, Marine Fax, Radio Fax and VHF radio. Currently the NWS, U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), and the U.S. Navy (USN) provide multiple dissemination methods for storm positioning, high sea areas, observations, forecasts, outlooks and warnings for both coastal and oceanic marine zones near the United States using Navigational Telex (NAVTEX), Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) and High Seas SImplex Teletype Over Radio (HFSITOR) in compliance with World Meteorological Organization (WMO) policies and the International Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) Convention.
Please refer to the following websites for more information on how to use these technologies:1. http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/marine/navtex.htm (NAVTEX)
2. http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/marine/gmdss.htm (GMDSS)
3. http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/marine/hfsitor.htm HFSITOR)
4. http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/marine/inmarsat.htm (SAFETYNET)
5. http://www.nws.noaa.gov/os/marine/vhfvoice.htm (USCG VHF)
For additional information, please contact:
Gregory Zwicker
National Weather Service
Dissemination Systems Branch
301-427-9682
[email protected]National Service Change Notices are online at:
https://www.weather.gov/notification/
NNNN
Just updated the archive, I appear to have not quite gotten the last WWVH broadcast, the recording I had previously was from 1200 UTC, the 1800 UTC announcement is still running and that should be the true final broadcast. Oddly enough, there appears to be no finality in the broadcast like on WWV.
I just posted an item about this:
https://swling.com/blog/2019/02/end-of-wwv-weather-information/
I’m guessing you didn’t grab recordings of those?
Thanks for following up!
Cheers,
Thomas
What exactly? The WWV and WWVH announcements that were added in place of the marine storm warnings? If so, I got the WWV announcement, two hours of it, one slightly clearer than the other, though I didn’t get WWVH yet.
Update. The final marine storm warning still hasn’t been removed from the WWVH broadcast for some reason.
And the transition is complete for WWVH, I just captured the announcement.
Interestingly, despite this, the NOAA marine forecast page has not yet been updated, it still states that a proposal to discontinue the service is being considered, however they could just be waiting until January to update the page. If the pattern from the last time is followed, we’ll probably hear warnings on WWV and WWVH around that time.
This is strange. The discontinuation of the storm warnings is just 6 days away, yet WWV is silent on the matter, no warnings at minutes 4 and 16. No idea if the current government shutdown has anything to do with it, but as far as I can tell the plan to discontinue the warnings is still going forward.
And it looks like the warnings have been officially discontinued as of 1900 UTC today. If anyone’s interested, I recorded the last broadcast on WWV.
Yes! Can you please share it with me as I’d like to put it on the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive.
Cheers,
Thomas
Here you go. After I posted my initial comment, I also managed to capture WWVH’s final broadcast, which still seems to be running at the moment. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FLg-s5u8DpbCHEMo6UkYH0OqHu5J-9Yl/view?usp=sharing