Shipping Forecast excluding the header line, has a limit of 350 words—except for the 0048 broadcast, where it is increased to 380 to accommodate Trafalgar's inclusion—and has a very strict format. It begins with "And now the Shipping Forecast, issued by the Met Office on behalf of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency at xxxx today." This format is followed quite strictly, although some continuity announcers read out the actual date of issue as opposed to the word "today". This is followed by gale warnings (winds of force 8 or more on the Beaufort scale), if any (e.g., "There are warnings of gales
Forecast region for the county or independent city), with the initial digit being for optional sub-county divisions. Both of these are becoming less important with the advent of point forecasts, and polygonal warning boxes based on lines drawn between geographic coordinate points. The coordinates of such points are listed at the end of each warning. The term county warning area is also used to indicate the area of responsibility for each NWS forecast office. The forecast area is usually synonymous with the broadcast range of all NOAA Weather Radio stations programmed from any particular office, though the broadcast callsign followed by "listening