Is the National Weather Service radar down nationwide? What NWS says, and how to get warnings

What is being shared

On Friday, November 13, posts and headlines said the National Weather Service radar was down across the country. A MyNewsLA.com story dated November 13 ran under the headline "Weather Service Reports Nationwide Outage" and quoted an NWS notice: "The NWS has been experiencing nation-wide internet and communications issues."

That afternoon, the FAA stopped departures at every US airport over its own communications problem, which we covered in our check of the Microsoft outage and the FAA ground stop.

What the National Weather Service actually said

NWS pushed back the same day. WJAR in Providence, reporting for The National News Desk, quotes the agency's post on X: "In case you heard otherwise, there is no radar outage and radar.weather.gov is fully operational." Reuters reported on November 13 that NWS said "outdated content from isolated webpages had been circulating but that there was no radar outage."

WJAR reports that one of the pages was the NWS Los Angeles office's, and that it carried a notice saying nationwide internet and communications issues could make weather products unavailable or out of date. WJAR says the page didn't show when the notice was posted, and that NWS gave no details about where the outdated content came from.

What is confirmed, and what is not

Confirmed: NWS says there was no radar outage and that its radar website was working. NWS's own live list of radar stations backs that up for the morning after. Our reading of that list at 6:37 a.m. Eastern on November 14: of the 159 NEXRAD radars, 157 had sent data in the previous 30 minutes. One, at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama, was listed as "RDA - Inoperable," and one, at Kadena Air Base in Japan, showed no status. NWS says it operates 159 NEXRAD radars in all.

Not confirmed: when the web notice first went up, or whether NWS websites had a separate, shorter problem earlier on Friday. We found no NWS service notice about the event on weather.gov. WJAR says it wasn't immediately clear whether the FAA disruption was connected to the NWS pages, and we found no official statement that links them.

Why this matters: radar and warnings are not the same thing

Radar is one tool forecasters use. Warnings are the instructions that reach you. Even on a day when a website or an app shows old data, NWS warnings travel by other routes. That is why the best step is not a new app but making sure at least two of those routes work in your home.

Individual radars can be out of service, as the Maxwell Air Force Base listing shows, so a gap over one area on a radar map doesn't by itself mean the whole network is down. The live alerts page shows the active NWS warnings for each state, whatever the radar map shows.

What it means for your home: how to get warnings if radar or apps fail

Wireless Emergency Alerts come to your phone without an app. NWS says: "No signup is required! Alerts are sent automatically to WEA-capable phones during an emergency." It also says WEA messages "are not affected by network congestion." Our guide to emergency alerts on your phone shows how to check they are switched on.

NOAA Weather Radio is the backup that doesn't depend on the internet. NWS says it "broadcasts official Weather Service warnings, watches, forecasts and other hazard information 24 hours a day, 7 days a week," from "more than 1000 transmitters, covering all 50 states." It needs "a special radio receiver or scanner," so if you already own one, test it now. Our weather radio guide explains how.

• Check that emergency alerts are on in your phone's settings
• If you own a weather radio, put in fresh batteries and run a test
• Know a local TV or radio station you can turn to in severe weather
• Agree with your household how you'll hear about a warning at night

What not to do

Don't buy anything because of this report: NWS says its radars were working, and your phone can already receive alerts for free. Don't install unfamiliar "radar fix" apps or browser add-ons that promise to get around an outage.

Don't rely on one screen. If a radar app or website looks frozen, check the time stamp on the image, then go to weather.gov or a local broadcaster. Before you share an outage claim, check NWS's own accounts and radar.weather.gov.