Weather service radios temporarily offline in north Alabama
Now it’s north Alabama’s turn.
The National Weather Service in Huntsville said that a long-planned software update will be happening at its office from today, June 3, through June 5.
The software update will not affect forecasts and any watches or warnings, but it will put NOAA weather radios in north Alabama offline through June 5.
The Huntsville weather service office is the third office in Alabama to undergo the update.
The Birmingham office, which monitors the weather in central Alabama, had its update on May 19-21, which coincided with a round of severe storms.
The Mobile weather service office had its update May 27-29, and severe storms were also in the forecast during that timeframe.
But north Alabama may have better luck: While scattered showers and occasional storms will be possible during the upgrade, organized severe weather isn’t expected (but there could be some this weekend).
The weather service in Huntsville said the weather radio outage will affect transmitters in these locations:
Here are the radio transmitters in north Alabama (and south Tennessee) that will be offline from June 3-5.NWS
Here’s another look at the NOAA weather radio transmitters that will be offline June 3-5.NWS
Weather radios in those locations will play a recorded message.
The weather service offices across the country are updating their Advanced Weather Interactive Processing Systems (otherwise known as AWIPS).
According to the weather service AWIPS is the “cornerstone” of its operations and “integrates all meteorological and hydrological data with satellite and radar imagery.”