Storms that struck before dawn may be what disabled the NOAA weather radio stations for hours in the Quad Cities area.
WXJ73 was off the air and technicians were working on the problem, according to a 1:46 a.m. statement on the National Weather Service website Monday, June 30, 2014.
The station, which broadcasts at 162.550 MHz, provides weather warnings, alerts and information for Cedar, Clinton, Louisa, Muscatine and Scott counties in Iowa and Henry, Mercer, Rock Island and Whiteside counties in Illinois.
KZZ83 in Maquoketa was also off the air as of 12:38 a.m. according to the NWS. That station covers Cedar, Clinton, Dubuque, Delaware, Jackson and Jones counties in Iowa and Carroll and Jo Daviess counties in Illinois.
The stations are part of a network of radio stations that broadcast continuous weather information. There are 1,000 transmitters in the NOAA weather radio network, covering all 50 states plus coastal waters.
WXJ73 was reportedly returned to broadcasting at about 10 a.m. The National Weather Service issued confirmation that both stations were returned to broadcasting and operating as usual at about 11:15 a.m.
In past outage situations, the National Weather Service has advised residents to tune to commercial stations until the transmitter was returned to service.
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