National Weather Service United States Department of Commerce

Periods of Snow in the Northern Rockies and Great Lakes

Moderate to heavy lake-effect snow will develop over the eastern U.P. of Michigan and downwind from Lakes Erie and Ontario. Snow will develop over parts of the Northern Rockies/Northern High Plains into Wednesday. Read More >

 
Topic Description

General Description

The National Weather Service (NWS) enterprise National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Weather Wire Service (NWWS) provides television and radio broadcasters, emergency managers, commercial / private alerting services, and the general public the fastest receipt of current weather information, alerts and warnings sent in text format from the local NWS Weather Forecast Offices and National Centers.

NWWS has been designed to use both an Internet (NWWS-Open Interface) and a Satellite product source (SBN/NOAAPORT Channel 201).  Use of both ingests is highly recommended to achieve a >98% product availability rating.  The NWWS is the fastest NWS dissemination method of receiving text formatted alerts and warnings. 

NOTE:  The NWWS Open Interface will experience planned and unplanned outages up to three times per month; with planned outages lasting on average between 10 minutes to less than 4-hours.  Unplanned outages have lasted longer than 10 hours.  
 

NWWS STATUS

System Information
NWWS NWWS-OI
Red Bullet showing operational status as non-operational
Satellites 
Green Bullet showing operational status as good
Galaxy 28 / 31
SBN-PID 201

 

Image of a Satellite with the Earth reflected in the solar panel - NOAA Image


Notices


The NWWS-OI will transition from College Park (140.90.113.240) to
Kansas City (140.90.59.197)
on March 14, 2024 at
12:00 to 12:30 UTC



OI text goes here

 

 

 

Hardware

  • ​Satellite Dish 1.8m (may have interference) or larger for better reception 2.4m or greater.
     
  • Satellite Configuration Information
     
  • Low Noise Band (LNB) down converter

  • DVB-S2 compatible satellite receiver (NOVRA S300 or similar)

  • Ethernet, RF coaxial and CAT5 network cables as necessary

  • Windows - based PC

  • Minimum - 20GB storage and 3GB RAM

  • SBN/NOAAPORT Channel 201

  


Software

  • XMPP Reader developed by end-user or purchased commercially.
     
  • Coding
    • There is a single XMPP chatroom that has a single user inside the room that is able to talk.  This bot user emits a <message> stanza that contains a special payload that has the raw text included.  Here is an example message stanza:
       
    • So if you are in the chatroom with a client that does not process this special <x> payload, you won’t see all the raw text included in the stanza.  The attributes on the <x> stanza are as follows:
       
    • The id attribute on the <x> stanza is meant to help clients know if they are missing any products as they parse the stream.  The id contains two values loaded up into one and they are separated by a period. The first number is the UNIX process ID on the system running the ingest process.  The second number is a simple incremented sequence number for the product.
       
    • When users join the chatroom, they are given a 60 message history.   These messages may not contain the <x> payload in the situation where the server is restarted.

<message to='enduser@server/laptop' type='groupchat' from='nwws@nwws-oi.weather.gov/nwws-oi'>

<body>KARX issues RR8 valid 2013-05-25T02:20:34Z</body>

<html xmlns='http://jabber.org/protocol/xhtml-im'>

<body xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>KARX issues RR8 valid 2013-05-25T02:20:34Z</body>

</html>

<x xmlns='nwws-oi' cccc='KARX' ttaaii='SRUS83' issue='2013-05-25T02:20:34Z' awipsid='RR8ARX' id='10313.6'>

111

SRUS83 KARX 250220

RR8ARX

:

: AUTOMATED GAUGE DATA COLLECTED FROM IOWA FLOOD CENTER

:

.A CDGI4 20130524 C DH2100/HGIRP 2.63 : MORGAN CREEK NEAR CEDAR RAPIDS

</x>

</message>

 

cccc

Four character issuing center

ttaaii

The six character WMO product ID

issue

ISO_8601 datetime in UTC

awipsid

The six character AWIPS ID, sometimes called AFOS PIL.

id

This is an unique identifier, see below.

 

Disclaimer
The United States Government makes no warranty, expressed or implied, as to the usefulness of the software and documentation for any purpose. The U.S. Government, its instrumentalities, officers, employees, and agents assume no responsibility (1) for the use of the software and documentation listed, or (2) to provide technical support to users. 


        Back to top of page

Format(s)


Monitoring

System is monitored 24x7

Please notify both SDM@noaa.gov and NWWS.Issue@noaa.gov about any issues. 

Most responses will occur during regular business hours
Monday – Friday (9am – 5pm ET).


Back to top of page


Access Information

  • Internet Protocol (IP) Addresses:
     
    Kansas City:  140.90.59.197
    College Park:  ​140.90.113.240

     
  • Gajim Reader

  • Thunderbird Reader

  • Pidgin Reader

  • NWS issued User_ID and password required for NWWS-OI. (NWWS-OI Request). 

    • Both credentials are case-sensitive and can only be used on one computer at a time

    • Multiple use on the same system will create an access error.

  • No user credentials are needed for NWWS-Satellite PID201.
    (See Hardware requirements and configuration for equipment details).

  • Please note, for NWS Credentials, depending on volume of requests there may be a wait of up to 30+ days depending on active server location.

  • Due to an update issue, users may experience random disconnects or account authentication errors.  Please be patient, these issues eventually self-correct.  Some systems may time out attempting to connect; if this happens wait 30-minutes and then attempt to reconnect.

    Back to top of page

Documents

  • Welcome Letter
     
  • Mission
     
  • History
     
  • NWWS Description
     
  • NWWS Configuration
     
  • Operational Poster
     
  • Hours of Operation / Availability
     
  • NWWS-OI Set-up Information
     
  • User Options for Alerts and Warnings
     
  • Severe Weather Definitions
     
  • NWWS Products 
    (not all text products listed are available from all local weather forecast offices)

     
  • Contact Information
    Back to top of page
 


Alert Information

       Back to top of page
 


Special Needs

  • Some NWWS application software can be set up for “tone alert” notification(s), and text messages can be sent to braille printers.
     
  • Critical alerts and warnings are the same that are sent over local Emergency Alert Systems (EAS) and sent to Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) capable telephones.

    Back to top of page


Issues

  • During monthly transitions, some users lose connectivity with the NWWS-OI due to security firewall and DNS settings until the next transition.  Be sure to allow both IP addresses through security firewall(s).
     
  • During monthly transitions, users that lose connectivity should reset the NWWS-OI software application or restart their computer system to correct the problem.
     
  • There is currently an update issue where users may experience random disconnects or account authentication errors.  Please be patient, these issues eventually self-correct.  Some systems may time-out attempting to connect; if this happens wait 30-minutes and then attempt to connect to the NWWS-OI.

    Back to top of page


Recommended Solutions

  • Please ensure the IP addresses are properly configured within your system and for your firewall access; 
    • NWWS-OI Kansas City IP address:  140.90.59.197
    • NWWS-OI College Park IP address: 140.90.113.240
    • NWWS-OI can be served by either of the two IP addresses.
       
    • Users should make sure that their firewalls are open for both IP addresses, but should allow their DNS systems to determine which IP is the active server.
  • Reset system
     
  • For password issues and resets contact NWWS.Help@noaa.gov.

    Back to top of page