NOAA alert mistakenly broadcast in NYC today

[kc2tek]

Both of my S.A.M.E. NOAA weather radios (different brands), monitoring KWO-35 in NYC, woke me up by sounding their alert tones this morning at 6:30 a.m., followed by boilerplate hurricane awareness voice messaging. The text display on both radios displayed "Unrecognized Statement".

Obviously it's not hurricane season so the messaging wasn't exactly timely or relevant. I'm curious if it went out over multiple NOAA stations, or even across broadcast outlets as an EAS alert. I also wonder if Musk's DOGE cuts to the NOAA may have led to the error. Does anyone know the backstory?

 

[trentbob]

Both of my S.A.M.E. NOAA weather radios (different brands), monitoring KWO-35 in NYC, woke me up by sounding their alert tones this morning at 6:30 a.m., followed by boilerplate hurricane awareness voice messaging. The text display on both radios displayed "Unrecognized Statement".

Obviously it's not hurricane season so the messaging wasn't exactly timely or relevant. I'm curious if it went out over multiple NOAA stations, or even across broadcast outlets as an EAS alert. I also wonder if Musk's DOGE cuts to the NOAA may have led to the error. Does anyone know the backstory?

So I tried to do some research and didn't see anything about the incident that you were talking about but I did find one news source that is, how should we say, represents one persuasion only and that's all I'm going to say about that, they are reporting that the cuts in the future of staff of NOAA is going to reduce the number of balloon launches that help predict forecasting.

I'm sure that government workers are not happy about being furloughed, or having to show up at work again after they were sent home when covid showed up 5 years ago but.. that's a horse of a different color.

Didn't see anything about the possible false weather notifications.

I'm just teasing but I think thier most accurate forecasts are when they open the window and look outside and see what it's doing.😉.. just joking.

I am south of New York City in the Trenton, New Jersey area and have access to at least four, sometimes five noaa weather radio stations. Nothing unusual.

Also the local 2 meter repeater I monitor that's very close to me has noaa weather alert that goes off automatically from the Philadelphia PA station if we have trouble, we just had an alert for severe thunderstorms imminent in my area and it's nice and bright and sunny out. There is some scattered showers on the radar but not near me.. maybe later.

I guess time will tell what staff cuts will result in.

 

[ecps92]

Both of my S.A.M.E. NOAA weather radios (different brands), monitoring KWO-35 in NYC, woke me up by sounding their alert tones this morning at 6:30 a.m., followed by boilerplate hurricane awareness voice messaging. The text display on both radios displayed "Unrecognized Statement".

Obviously it's not hurricane season so the messaging wasn't exactly timely or relevant. I'm curious if it went out over multiple NOAA stations, or even across broadcast outlets as an EAS alert. I also wonder if Musk's DOGE cuts to the NOAA may have led to the error. Does anyone know the backstory?

Not Hurricane Season but it is Hurricane Awareness (Prepardness) Week

 

[trentbob]

Not Hurricane Season but it is Hurricane Awareness (Prepardness) Week

Yep just like the South Shore of Long Island New York and Fire Island had exercises and drills on the weekend for hurricanes and other emergencies on Fire Island for Hurricane preparedness week.

 

[wtp]

practice like you play.
have hurricane drills when the weather is nice probably does not follow that one.
down here a middle of the summer afternoon storm can have 70+MPH winds at an inch+ an hour.
c'mon down !

 

[kc2tek]

Not Hurricane Season but it is Hurricane Awareness (Prepardness) Week

OK fine, but that's still no reason to wake people up with an alert that triggers the NOAA radios early in the morning.

 

[kc2asb]

OK fine, but that's still no reason to wake people up with an alert that triggers the NOAA radios early in the morning.

Absolutely! Probably nothing more than a wrong button pushed or keystroke when programming the looped forecast. Y

You mentioned budget cuts in the first post - little doubt that forecasting will suffer and any savings won't benefit the average taxpayer.

 

[trentbob]

OK fine, but that's still no reason to wake people up with an alert that triggers the NOAA radios early in the morning.

I'm a big weather watcher locally but I don't think I would ever actually set the alarm, in my area we get the most god-awful squalls and thunderstorms and Flash floods and in recent years bad tornadoes. I would never get any sleep. Live on the Delaware River that has high and low tide so our water rescues are pretty sophisticated sometimes, we've had our share of people including children get swept away and are gone, our Emergency Services could certainly handle hurricanes around here.

Late spring, early summer afternoons, alerts going off constantly. We get red cells the size of a town.

If there is anybody out there that's within earshot, north of Philadelphia, Montgomery County, Bucks County in PA and Burlington County in New Jersey, with propagation charts being how they are, maybe further, the frequency is 147.300, csq output W3BXW.. BEARS.. Bristol Emergency Amateur Repeater System.. that has 24-hour NOAA Weather Radio alerts, it comes on and goes off on its own.

It's not a widely used repeater so not so many rag chewers to listen to, occasionally somebody coming back from the shore or something. It's what I'm on all the time.

 

[dave3825]

There were reports of NOAA Weather Radio tone alerts going off in New York on May 6, 2025, which may have been a false alarm. The National Weather Service (NWS) New York office acknowledged the issue, stating they were investigating the potential cause of the alert. They clarified that the Public Information Statement issued was not designated to trigger an alert, suggesting the tone may have been sent in error. No specific weather event or emergency was tied to the alert based on available information.

 

[kc2tek]

That seems like the best answer we'll likely see. Thanks @dave3825 .

 

[MUTNAV]

So I tried to do some research and didn't see anything about the incident that you were talking about but I did find one news source that is, how should we say, represents one persuasion only and that's all I'm going to say about that, they are reporting that the cuts in the future of staff of NOAA is going to reduce the number of balloon launches that help predict forecasting.

I'm sure that government workers are not happy about being furloughed, or having to show up at work again after they were sent home when covid showed up 5 years ago but.. that's a horse of a different color.

Didn't see anything about the possible false weather notifications.

I'm just teasing but I think thier most accurate forecasts are when they open the window and look outside and see what it's doing.😉.. just joking.

I am south of New York City in the Trenton, New Jersey area and have access to at least four, sometimes five noaa weather radio stations. Nothing unusual.

Also the local 2 meter repeater I monitor that's very close to me has noaa weather alert that goes off automatically from the Philadelphia PA station if we have trouble, we just had an alert for severe thunderstorms imminent in my area and it's nice and bright and sunny out. There is some scattered showers on the radar but not near me.. maybe later.

I guess time will tell what staff cuts will result in.

I have to wonder how much the civilian community has gone to the "one big computer" central forcast arrangement. I believe the Air Force went this way, cutting the number of forcasters from most bases.

Forcast quality seems to have gone down over time. Awhile ago, a NYC radio broadcast station was so confident of it's forcasts that if the central park weather station mid day temperture measurement was off by a small amount (like 1 or 2 degrees) they would give away a bunch of money.

Nowdays, the weather people aren't even close to getting forcasts right.
(Like whether it will rain the next day).

Thanks
Joel

 

[tvengr]

Nowdays, the weather people aren't even close to getting forcasts right.
(Like whether it will rain the next day).

I worked as a TV broadcast engineer for 45 years. I have always said that the weather forecast should say something like, "There is a 90% chance of rain and a 10% chance I'm right!" The weather people did not appreciate my comments.

 

[MUTNAV]

I worked as a TV broadcast engineer for 45 years. I have always said that the weather forecast should say something like, "There is a 90% chance of rain and a 10% chance I'm right!" The weather people did not appreciate my comments.

Actually I overheard a weather station commander scold a forcaster at one point for predicting 100% chance of rain. He told the forcaster to not forcast 100% or 0% of anything.

Apparently the way statistics works, it messes them up, it doesn't matter if it's correct, the calculation of the statistics becomes a problem somehow.

Thanks
Joel

 

[rr60]

I'm a big weather watcher locally but I don't think I would ever actually set the alarm, in my area we get the most god-awful squalls and thunderstorms and Flash floods and in recent years bad tornadoes. I would never get any sleep. Live on the Delaware River that has high and low tide so our water rescues are pretty sophisticated sometimes, we've had our share of people including children get swept away and are gone, our Emergency Services could certainly handle hurricanes around here.

Late spring, early summer afternoons, alerts going off constantly. We get red cells the size of a town.

If there is anybody out there that's within earshot, north of Philadelphia, Montgomery County, Bucks County in PA and Burlington County in New Jersey, with propagation charts being how they are, maybe further, the frequency is 147.300, csq output W3BXW.. BEARS.. Bristol Emergency Amateur Repeater System.. that has 24-hour NOAA Weather Radio alerts, it comes on and goes off on its own.

It's not a widely used repeater so not so many rag chewers to listen to, occasionally somebody coming back from the shore or something. It's what I'm on all the time.

Always enjoy reading your print Bob, this callsign matters. WA3BXW. Best.

 

[trentbob]

Always enjoy reading your print Bob, this callsign matters. WA3BXW. Best.

Oh yes.. thank you.. I'm a member of Warminster, we lost our Bristol repeater input on Grundy Tower.. Soo.. very much appreciated!

Regards, 73

 

[trentbob]

I have to wonder how much the civilian community has gone to the "one big computer" central forcast arrangement. I believe the Air Force went this way, cutting the number of forcasters from most bases.

Forcast quality seems to have gone down over time. Awhile ago, a NYC radio broadcast station was so confident of it's forcasts that if the central park weather station mid day temperture measurement was off by a small amount (like 1 or 2 degrees) they would give away a bunch of money.

Nowdays, the weather people aren't even close to getting forcasts right.
(Like whether it will rain the next day).

Thanks
Joel

Yeah I know what you mean, personally I have a very good high rated radar app and really the only way to know how you're going to be impacted by the weather in the next 20 minutes or half hour is to look at the radar. That's what I do, weather forecasts in print or TV are best to give you a prediction of the temperature which is important and not always accurate on the apps.

 

[riflemin]

Back on February 1,2003 my NOAA weather radio woke me up on a bright sunny morning with a message about dangerous hazardous materials released in the atmosphere and falling to the ground. My first thought was a terrorist attack!

I turned on my television and learned that the space shuttle COLUMBIA had broken up over East Texas more than a hundred miles south of me. Friends told me that they heard the explosion and that our 911 center got flooded with calls.

I wish that our local agencies would use the NOAA station for emergency notifications rather than rely on "social media".

 

[trentbob]

Back on February 1,2003 my NOAA weather radio woke me up on a bright sunny morning with a message about dangerous hazardous materials released in the atmosphere and falling to the ground. My first thought was a terrorist attack!

I turned on my television and learned that the space shuttle COLUMBIA had broken up over East Texas more than a hundred miles south of me. Friends told me that they heard the explosion and that our 911 center got flooded with calls.

I wish that our local agencies would use the NOAA station for emergency notifications rather than rely on "social media".

Just because of the time frame and circumstances I'm very familiar with the entire incident from beginning to end, if you're in that vicinity, Longwood, Texas you would be getting the bulk of the big parts. Left wing with the missing heat shielding tiles was the first to come off.

An alarm on NOAA Weather Radio that gets to the news media right away really does help to get the public assistance and reports in that kind of emergency.

We've been getting less than normal alerts on NOAA Weather Radio in Mount Holly, New Jersey.. that's the Philadelphia weather channel.