The broadcasts normally provide daily forecasts as well as hazardous weather warnings for Southwest Michigan listeners with weather radios.
But the NWS station in Plainwell announced an outage Wednesday morning, with service returning Friday.
NWS meteorologist Walt Felver said it’s not clear what caused the outage, but added that it likely started with damage to phonelines that send audio to the station’s transmitter.
“Especially this time of year, in the summer, during construction season, a lot of things get cut, accidentally,” Felver said.
Felver said when the weather radio is down it has the biggest impact on people who don’t have reliable internet or other ways to hear about an emergency.
“Elderly use it a lot. People in rural areas use it a lot,” Felver said.
When their region’s service is down, listeners may be able to tune to stations in West Olive or Onondaga Township, or the one in Angola, Indiana, depending on their location.
Michael Symonds reports for WMUK through the Report for America national service program.
