Weather Links

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

Broadcast TV – channels 4, 9, 12, and 14 have Northwest Iowa Weather.

Cable TV - Doppler weather radar can be seen on cable channel 21. The Weather Channel is cable channel 23. Local weather conditions can be found on cable channel 3. Local cable broadcast channels with Iowa Great Lakes weather are channels 4, 6, and 9.

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 wind and precipitation forecast for the next seven days in two day increments seven day wind forecast

"Weather - LIVE" Page - Current conditions at Gull Point: air temperature, wind speed, wind direction, humidity, and rainfall are available by clicking on WEATHER LIVE in the left column.

At the bottom of the WEATHER LIVE page there is a place to select historical weather information:

   Daily Observations - provides weather conditions since midnight. It is also possible to select the previous day or select a specific date.

   Monthly Observations - provides weather conditions since the first of the month. It is also possible to select the previous month or one of the four previous months.

   Station Graphs - provides the capability to graph two weather conditions over the past 24 hours, one week or two week period.

There is also an option to animate the Live Camera view for the last six hours.

Weather Radio – Iowa Great Lakes weather information and severe weather alerts are broadcast by NOAA National Weather Service. The 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. Other alerting receivers will also display the type of alert. Several choices of receiver types are available at Radio Shack in Spirit Lake.

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 the website www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr  

Weatherbug - The Iowa Great Lakes Water Safety Council operates a weather station at the Gull Point Lake Patrol Station on West Lake Okoboji. To access Iowa Great Lakes weather conditions along with weather forecasts, warnings, and camera views download the free Weatherbug software from their website www.weatherbug.com/aws/index.asp Once you have the Weatherbug software, select OPTIONS and enter your Iowa Great Lakes zip code (Okoboji is 51355) then select Iowa Great Lakes Water Safety Council as the site you want to monitor.