One of the most important things that you can have as part of your emergency safety kit is a weather radio. The National Weather Service provides the forecasts and severe weather alerts that you hear on it. With an all hazards weather radio, you not only get the latest severe weather information, but it lets you know about environmental and public safety emergencies like amber alerts and chemical spills. A great reason to have one of these radios is the battery backup. That means if severe weather strikes and the power goes out, it may be the only way for you to find out the latest weather information. Another great thing about this particular radio is that you can program it for just the county you live in or the county you live in plus all of the surrounding counties.

If you want to program Lancaster county into your radio. Here is what you need to do:

You first want to make sure the radio is plugged in or you have installed three double a batteries. Press menu, then the up arrow three times until the display reads same set. Press select. Then press the up arrow to single since we want just one county. You can choose any, single or multiple. Multiple means you want to program for more than one county. Any means that you want to receive the watches, warnings and advisories for any county in the radio's coverage area. Press select. You should see same 01. Press select again. You will see a series of dashes. Now, we are going to enter the same code for Lancaster county which is 031109. Press the up arrow button to get the desired number, which in this case is 0. Then press the right arrow button. Press the up arrow until you see 3. Then press the right arrow button again. Press the up button until you see 1. Then press the right arrow button again. Then press the up arrow button until you see 1. Press the right arrow button again. Then the up arrow button until you see 0. Press the right arrow button one more time. Finally, press the up arrow button until you see 9. Press select and you are done. It's just that easy.

If you want to find your county's code or the right weather frequency for your location in order to hear the latest weather information from the National Weather Service, go to our weather page. You will find the weather radio link on the right side.

The NOAA weather radio will keep you and your family informed about a weather situation when you are sleeping or when a television or computer is not available.