Question: Why do we get warnings from different National Weather Service Offices?

Answer: Each National Weather Service (NWS) office across the United States issues forecasts and warnings, and provides weather services for a particular area. Since these areas are quite large, they’re often broken down into zones- this group of zones is often what is referred to as the office’s County Warning Area

On land, a zone is normally a county and over water, zones are normally divided into areas of nearshore waters. There are a few National Weather Service Offices nearby, but the ones that forecast for the counties we cover are the NWS Office in State College and the NWS Office in Binghamton.

The National Weather Service Office in Binghamton covers all of the New York counties in our viewing area and Bradford County, Pennsylvania. The National Weather Service Office in State College primarily covers central Pennsylvania, and they cover the other county in our viewing area, Tioga County, Pennsylvania.

So you might have seen us issue a warning that says the National Weather Service Office in Binghamton has issued a special weather statement, and for the same storm, we might also say that the National Weather Service in State College has issued a special weather statement. If you wondered “Why do you have it twice for the same storm?”- that is the reason why.

We have a slight overlap of the National Weather Service offices here but we use them both to help us forecast here and to receive watches, warnings, advisories, and much more here in the Twin Tiers.

Have a weather question you have always wondered about? Message me on social media: Facebook (Anna Meyers), Twitter (18StormAnna), and Instagram (Anna.weather), or email me at AnnaMeyers@WETMTV.com and you might be featured on the next weekly Anna Answers.