The U.S. National Weather Service (NWS) confirmed on Friday evening, November 13, 2026, that its national weather radar network and public radar website are operating normally across the United States. The agency issued the clarification after afternoon reports of a nationwide National Weather Service outage raised concerns that residents and emergency managers could lose access to forecasts and severe weather warnings.
In an operational update issued at 6:01 p.m. EST (2301 UTC) on Friday from College Park, Maryland, National Weather Service Central Operations stated, “All NWS radar data systems and network comms are operating normally. There are currently no widespread NWS IT or network outages.” Thirteen minutes later, at 6:14 p.m. EST, the National Weather Service wrote in a Bluesky post and on X, “In case you heard otherwise, there is no radar outage and radar.weather.gov is fully operational” while explaining that outdated material from isolated webpages had been circulating online.
The confirmation means people tracking storms on Weather.gov and the national radar platform at radar.weather.gov can continue using both services as usual. Access to timely forecasts and precipitation imagery is especially practical this weekend, with a Saturday NWS forecast bulletin warning of heavy snow and hazardous travel conditions in the Sierra Nevada mountains and potential thunderstorms with moderate to heavy rainfall across parts of eastern Texas and Louisiana on Sunday, November 15.
How outdated pages fueled National Weather Service outage rumors
Concerns began earlier on Friday afternoon when a Reuters report and several local news outlets noted that an NWS webpage displayed a notice about nationwide internet and communications problems that could block access to web products or show outdated weather information. According to Aktualita.co, one widely shared page tied to the NWS office in Anchorage, Alaska, carried a notice about a national radar outage without a visible publication date, making it difficult for readers to separate older technical alerts from Friday’s actual operating conditions.
Throughout Friday afternoon, local NWS forecast offices continued issuing routine forecasts, watches, and warnings. Jacksonville station News4JAX reported that meteorologists at the NWS Jacksonville office confirmed all local systems were running normally and said the nationwide outage rumors were false. NBC News reported, as cited by Nacionale, that one NWS radar data webpage went down briefly on Friday before returning online, while the radar sites themselves kept working. Separately, a local NWS official told Charlotte television station WBTV that a smaller regional problem was affecting NOAA weather radios, adding that the issue was not widespread and that network engineers were troubleshooting it.
The weather service rumors spread on the same afternoon that air traffic control communications problems triggered a nationwide FAA ground stop across U.S. airports before the Federal Aviation Administration lifted the order on Friday evening. No connection between the aviation communications trouble and the National Weather Service webpages has been confirmed.
What the NWS advises when weather pages fail to load
The National Weather Service, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), notes that a browser error, local internet problem, or cached page on a local forecast site does not mean meteorologists have stopped monitoring conditions or issuing warnings. Residents who have trouble loading a local forecast page can check the main Weather.gov homepage first to search their city or ZIP code again, check the radar.weather.gov platform separately, or clear their browser cache and test another connection. During severe weather such as tornadoes or flash flooding, the agency recommends keeping multiple warning channels available, including NOAA Weather Radio, local television and radio broadcasts, and Wireless Emergency Alerts sent directly to compatible mobile phones.