Lincoln, IL (CAPITOL CITY NOW) – It’s not the dismantling of a government agency; rather, it’s a planned outage due to system upgrades.

The National Weather Service office in Lincoln says NOAA weather radio stations they operate will be off the air from around 7 a.m. Tuesday, June 3, until sometime Thursday afternoon, June 5.

“The National Weather Service in Lincoln will be performing a required, scheduled update to its Advanced Weather Information Processing System (AWIPS),” said a statement on the Lincoln office’s website.  That’s the system they use to display and send life-saving information both online and through weather radio.

The NOAA weather radio stations that will be off the air include:

  • Bloomington:  KZZ-65 (162.525 MHz, channel 6)
  • Champaign:  WXJ-76 (162.550 MHz, channel 7)
  • Galesburg:  KZZ-66 (162.400 MHz, channel 1)
  • Jacksonville:  WXM-90 (162.525 MHz, channel 6)
  • Newton:  KXI-48 (162.450 MHz, channel 3)
  • Paris:  KXI-47 (162.525 MHz, channel 6)
  • Peoria:  WXJ-71 (162.475 MHz, channel 4)
  • Shelbyville:  KXI-46 (162.500 MHz, channel 5)
  • Springfield:  WXJ-75 (162.400 MHz, channel 1)

Officials in Lincoln say other weather radio stations will still be on the air during the period, but may be difficult to tune in in central Illinois, because of their signals.  The NWS phone line that provides weather details will not be operational.  Parts of the Lincoln website data will also be unavailable during that time as well.

NWS says in the event of severe or dangerous weather, mobile apps should still be able to distribute warnings.