LINCOLN, Ill. – Weather radios across central Illinois will be silent for the next few days.
Starting Tuesday morning, NOAA Weather Radio transmitters went offline until around 4:00 P.M. on Thursday.
Ed Shimon of the National Weather Service Lincoln Office says it’s due to a system upgrade to its interactive computer system. He says the radios had to go offline because they feed the radios through it in a direct phone line in the building, and a backup is not possible.
Shimon says the Chicago office will cover central Illinois’ warnings during the outage, while the Saint Louis office will do the daily forecasts.
Shimon says people can still get weather information on its website, and on wireless devices.
“Phones will go off with wireless emergency alerts for the tornado warnings if you are in that threat area in the polygon,” Shimon said.
Shimon says severe thunderstorm warning alerts will occur if it includes 80 MPH winds or baseball sized hail. Portions of central Illinois are under a slight to marginal risk of severe weather Tuesday night.
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