With tornado season in full force, and hurricane season just on the horizon, National Weather Services (NWS) offices across the country are managing a series of required updates for their radio stations.
NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards (NWR) is a nationwide network of radio stations broadcasting continuous weather information directly from the nearest NWS office.
According to the NWS website, beginning this spring, NWR stations have been taken out of service for 2-3 days for a “necessary scheduled system update.” This process is ongoing.
NOAA Public Affairs Specialist Erica Grow Cei said these staggered updates are required, prescheduled and are being done to every single weather forecast station in the country, sometimes with multiple transmitters down at one time. According to a NWS statement out of Birmingham, Ala., this downtime will be used to update NWS offices’ Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System, or AWIPS.
In total, 122 weather forecast offices are responsible for more than 1,000 NWR transmitters, covering all 50 states in addition to Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the U.S. Pacific territories.
Grow Cei was not able to confirm exactly when these updates started or when they’re scheduled to finish; however, NOAA on its website said the updates will be done on a rolling basis across the country through June 2025.
Radio World first heard reports of these updates from engineers in Southern Florida. Previously, from April 21 to April 23, the National Weather Service said NWR transmitters serving West Central and Southwest Florida would be off the air. The NWS Tampa Bay office communicated that news over social media, although Grow Cei says there are multiple ways NOAA disseminates information about scheduled maintenance and severe weather.
She said news is often communicated through public information statements posted on individual NWS websites, in addition to regular check-ins with “core partners” such as local emergency management offices.
Grow Cei said NOAA also uses the communications platform Slack to notify its partners in advance.
[Letter: “Weather Radio Outages Have EAS Implications“]
On Tuesday, May 20, Grow Cei said Marquette, Mich., is the only location she knows of where NWR transmitters are down.
“If you don’t own a NOAA weather radio, then you won’t notice a difference. But we do encourage everyone to get one,” she said. “That is the only thing that is currently out of service in Marquette, Mich. This upgrade doesn’t change a forecast office’s ability to get out these warnings.”
Radio World, however, has seen notices of other scheduled transmitter outages this week, including in Birmingham, which has severe weather in its forecast. These temporary outages have raised concerns as the U.S. continues to face natural disasters this month. Just this past weekend, Kentucky and Missouri were heavily impacted by tornadoes, with at least 25 deaths reported.
HEADS-UP for NEXT week: Our computer system will be undergoing a software update May 19-21. We’ll continue to issue any necessary warnings and post them here, and any apps that use them will still have them. However, NOAA Weather radio will be off the air during that time. pic.twitter.com/R5HZPseqeQ
— NWS Birmingham (@NWSBirmingham) May 15, 2025
NWR requires a special radio receiver or scanner capable of picking up the signal. Broadcasts are found in the VHF public service band at these seven frequencies (MHz): 162.400, 162.425, 162.450, 162.475, 162.500, 162.525 and 162.550.
While these updates are taking place, Grow Cei said there are other ways to receive life-saving weather information. These include text alerts, wireless emergency alerts and information via the NWS website and social media accounts.
“We always encourage people to have multiple ways to receive weather alerts,” she said. “NOAA shouldn’t be your only way.”
To learn if your NWR station has been scheduled for updates, click here and then on the office in your area to visit its website.
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