National Weather Service experiences significant data outage as Alberto targets US Gulf Coast
Prior to Alberto moving into the Florida Panhandle on Memorial Day, a prolonged outage in data from the National Weather Service (NWS) prevented meteorologists from using key weather forecasting tools.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) experienced a major outage in data communications from Sunday evening into Monday.
At the height of the outage on Monday morning, meteorologists were not able to access key forecasting tools and critical weather data, which are vital to protecting lives and property with Alberto threatening the Southeast with flooding rain and during other hazardous weather situations.
The transmission of information improved enough for meteorologists to receive computer model data and current observations by Monday afternoon. Some NOAA websites were still inaccessible.
A few hours later at 3:15 p.m. EDT, a statement from NWS reported that "all sites should be fully available again."
AccuWeather-produced services remained available and reliable during this major government data outage.
"It is very troubling to see these significant disruptions to forecast models and other data--as well as difficulty accessing some NWS websites this holiday weekend when the country is dealing with the damaging impacts from Alberto in the southeastern U.S., a flash flood disaster in Ellicott City, Maryland, and surrounding areas, as well as damaging tornadoes in parts of the western High Plains and Intermountain West," AccuWeather Vice President and General Manager of Business Services Jonathan Porter said.
A National Weather Service meteorologist in Norman, Oklahoma, tracks a super cell tornado outbreak. (Photo/National Weather Service)
"It is a very serious concern to see these continued data dissemination challenges, especially during times of severe weather when the speed of delivery and reliably of the data is so critical," Porter said.
"AccuWeather and other companies in America’s Weather Industry had expressed significant concern to the NWS when they switched to a new system for distributing data components in recent years, specifically raising concerns about how the new system would perform during major weather events when the requests for information would likely surge," he added.
Porter urges the NWS to develop and implement an action plan to resolve these ongoing data issues quickly.
During his Senate confirmation to head NOAA, Barry Myers, on November 29, 2017, in response to a question from Senator Peters, addressed the issue of information transmission reliability. Prophetically, he stated there was concern about the new delivery system and that delays of even a few seconds during a tornado emergency could be critical.
Unlike commercial weather organizations that repackage NWS products, AccuWeather generates its own forecasts and warnings based on both public and proprietary weather data.
AccuWeather’s unique technology aggregates and analyzes weather data through complex models and expert weather forecasters - the largest source of weather data and modeling available globally – to provide the most reliable weather information and updates with Superior Accuracy™.
AccuWeather uses best-in-class technology that is recognized by leaders around the world to ensure full reliability of weather data storage, accessibility and communications globally.
Barry Myers is the Chief Executive Officer of AccuWeather.
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