WEATHER LINKS

Broadcast Radio – local news and weather are broadcast by KUOO 103.9 FM and KICD 1240 AM

Broadcast TV – Digital channels 4.1, 9.1 and 14.1 have Northwest Iowa Weather.

Digital Cable TV - Local weather conditions can be found on cable channel 80.5 or 101. The Weather Channel are cable channels 66.17 or 853. Local cable channels with Iowa Great Lakes weather are Digital Television channels 79.12, 87.3, 88.1. Cable box channels are 804, 806, and 809.

Internet –The National Weather Service at Sioux Falls provides weather information for Iowa Great Lakes. Check the NWS webpage for a Seven Day Weather Forecast or the hourly wind and precipitation forecast for the next seven days in two-day increments. S even D ay W ind Forecast

Hydrological Buoy - Each spring the Iowa Lakeside Laboratory and Regents Resource Center (located in Little Millers Bay) installs a hydrological buoy on West Lake Okoboji off Sunset Beach. In the fall the buoy is removed before ice out. In May 2020 a second Hydrological Buoy was installed on Big Spirit Lake.

Use this Internet link to find the site for hydrological buoy: https://wqdatalive.com/public/470

Click on the green dot on each lake to see the weather data.

Or download this application on your Smartphone and select "West Lake Okoboji" or "Big Spirit Lake" from the project list to subscribe to notifications and track data for this buoy.

Weather Radio – Iowa Great Lakes weather information and severe weather alerts are broadcast by the NOAA National Weather Service. This weather information is continuously broadcast on 162.55 MHz. to special weather alerting receivers from the NWS office at Sioux Falls. Weather readings are taken from an automated weather reporting system at the Spencer airport.

In normal operation these special weather-alerting receivers are muted. When the NWS transmits a weather alert the user hears a short tone and the weather alerting information. Typical alerts would include: Tornado, Severe Thunderstorm, Flash Flood, Winter Storm, and National Emergency. You can also listen to instant weather information by pressing the monitor button on these special receivers. Coverage of this weather alerting service includes the Iowa Great Lakes plus an additional forty-mile radius, depending on terrain.

Simple low cost alerting receivers ($20-30) will provide alerts for all the counties covered by the Milford transmitter. These counties include Clay, Dickinson, Emmet, Palo Alto, and Jackson county Minnesota.

More expensive receivers ($40 –70) have a digital programming capability to receive weather alerts specifically related to Dickinson County. More expensive alerting receivers will also display the type of alert.

Here is how to program your receiver: Set the radio frequency to channel 1, channel 7, channel G, or 162.55 MHz. depending on your model of receiver. If you have one of the more sophisticated receivers - with special digital coding technology called Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME) - program the digital code for the county or counties of interest to you. The digital code for Dickinson County is 019059. This NOAA weather alerting system will be tested each Wednesday between 10 AM and noon.

For more information on National Weather Service Radio check their website at www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr.

Lightning Facts - One weather concern for boaters is lightning. Here are some points to remember:

Lightning can strike as far as 10 miles from where it is raining

If you can hear thunder, you are close enough to be struck by lightning

Lightning often strikes the tallest object…so get off the water!