COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

NOAA Weather Radio broadcasts across much of central and southwest Missouri are temporarily offline as the National Weather Service in Springfield conducts a scheduled system upgrade, just as strong storms are forecast to impact the region.

The service disruption began Monday morning and is expected to last through Wednesday, June 18. It affects weather radio transmitters maintained by the Springfield NWS office that serve parts of Missouri, southeast Kansas, northeast Oklahoma, and northern Arkansas.

The outage comes at a critical time, with severe storms—including damaging winds, large hail, and a tornado threat—forecast for late Monday night into Tuesday.

“No warning system is foolproof,” Jonathan Kurtz, Warning Coordination Meteorologist for NWS Kansas City, told ABC 17 News. “The weather radio transmitters right now coming out of the Springfield office in Springfield, Missouri, are down because of an AWIP software build upgrade we've got going on.”

The Springfield office is performing a required update to its Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS), which integrates and distributes weather data and warnings. The update is expected to last until Wednesday. Until then, forecast and warning duties have been temporarily shifted to backup offices in St. Louis, Paducah, and Lincoln, Illinois, to avoid major service disruptions.

Still, Kurtz emphasized the importance of being prepared.

“We’ve got storms today moving into parts of southwestern Missouri and then continuing tomorrow,” Kurtz said. “Make sure to have multiple ways to get watches and warning information. Stay tuned to local media.”

While NOAA Weather Radios are a critical tool, officials stress the importance of redundancy. FEMA estimates that an all-hazards weather radio can provide up to eight minutes of warning before a tornado strikes—time that could save lives. But other sources like mobile weather apps, local news stations, and wireless emergency alerts are also vital.

Meteorologist Chance Gotch with ABC 17 Stormtrack said weather radios remain a reliable option.

“I think they're even better than an app. I myself have one. My parents have one just because an app is great, but if your phone dies or maybe you don't have your sound on all the way, the radio, you set it once, you can kind of just leave it there,” Gotch explained. “If you have it plugged in and have good supply of batteries, it's going to be something that it's going to be  keeping you a little bit more alert.”

“I think they’re even better than an app. If your phone dies or you don’t have the sound on, the weather radio’s still there plugged in, with backup batteries, keeping you alert,” Gotch said.

He added that despite growing “storm fatigue” from the recent stretch of storms,  he believes people in the region are still paying attention.

“A lot of people get burnt out. But I think something that we're seeing a lot this year is people are a lot more keen to the weather messaging.  We saw what happened in Saint Louis, Pilot Grove, even in Fulton. We've seen a lot of tornadic damage, even some large hail down in real close to four inches. So  I think storm fatigue can be real, but this year I feel like people are staying pretty on top of getting their messages and warnings, even whenever I just talk to community members,” Gotch said.

The full list of affected counties includes Boone, Cole, Phelps, Pulaski. A complete breakdown of impacted transmitters can be found at weather.gov/nwr/wfo_list?WFO=SGF.

NOAA broadcasts are expected to resume service by Wednesday. Until then, officials urge residents to remain weather aware and ensure they have at least two or three reliable ways to receive emergency alerts.

The post NOAA weather radios go offline in parts of Missouri for scheduled updates ahead of severe weather threat appeared first on ABC17NEWS.