Weather Radios Back After Lightning Strike, Weather Radar Still Down

July 10, 2012

NOAA weather radio service has returned after a lightning strike Monday at the National Weather Service Office in Mobile, but weather radarremains down.

All seven NOAA weather radio transmitters, including those that serve Escambia and Santa Rosa counties, were out of service for a day, leaving local citizens unable to rely on their weather radios for weather warnings.

The estimated time of repair for the weather radio system is unknown, and the NWS says the weather radar from Mobile (which is local radar for the Pensacola/Escambia County area) remains out of service until further notice.

Comments

9 Responses to “Weather Radios Back After Lightning Strike, Weather Radar Still Down”

  1. Walnut Hill Roy on July 10th, 2012 7:02 am

    Aren’t these the same people who tell us how to install lightning rods to protect our houses? The government is great at telling us civilians how to live but does not install half of what they advocate on their own stuff. We taxpayers, like lambs being led to slaughter, keep paying to replace items time after time because of negligence.

  2. Jane on July 10th, 2012 5:40 am

    Government spends tons of money on grants to study all sorts of things…maybe it is time to spend some on “homeland security hurricane/storm warnings”. Wouldn’t it be more cost effective to warn people so they could protect themselves/property before someting happens than to pay to fix it afterward? Oh, wait, I forgot, we are talking about the government !

  3. Jimmy on July 9th, 2012 7:09 pm

    The mobile radar is very expensive so having two at the same NWS Office is not likley to happen soon. With recent budget cuts to all NWS Offices it’s hard to maintain just one.
    There are several ways to get the weather alerts to name a few. 1) AlertFM (uses text messages from your radio station in the network.) http://www.alertfm.com/
    2) Local TV and Radio Stations. Here is the radar from The Tallahasee Office.
    http://radar.weather.gov/radar.php?rid=evx&product=N0R&overlay=11101111&loop=no
    William is right you need to go to the closest radar for more detailed images.

  4. paul on July 9th, 2012 6:30 pm

    I wonder if they saw that one coming??

  5. deBugger on July 9th, 2012 4:58 pm

    Now, everyone that feels froggy can jump on me for being an advocate of “the nanny state” or continuing “big government spending boondoggles”, unless, of course, we’re talking about DOD expenditures—

    if we could only weaponize random acts of kindness…

  6. deBugger on July 9th, 2012 4:55 pm

    @Jane-

    good idea, but we’re on track to have less & less weather info available from NWS soon- satellites not being replaced, a “pay to play” model for private radar/satellite photos looming on the horizon- NASA was just the first Public Safety & Technological Advancement Program that the bright boys in Big Government decided to hand over to private concerns…

    when everyone is paying for Public Safety Info Channels (storm warning radar/radio), will anyone think twice about how the government actually WORKED FOR US only a short time ago?

  7. Jane on July 9th, 2012 4:44 pm

    Maybe they need to install a backup NOAA at a different location. What if there was a hurricane coming and we had no warning as to where it would come ashore? Think about it…it will seem worse!?

  8. William on July 9th, 2012 4:20 pm

    >>The Weather Channel’s site seems to be working.

    It overlays the data from surrounding radar sites (Eglin, New Orleans, Fort Rucker) to create the image without the Mobile site data. It means a less accurate radar and also means it’s harder for forecasters to determine the severity of storms.

  9. Mike on July 9th, 2012 4:03 pm

    http://www.weather.com/weather/map/interactive/32533?animation=true

    The Weather Channel’s site seems to be working. :)

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News