The National Weather Service (NWS) has dismissed reports of a nationwide radar outage in the US, saying its radar systems are operating normally. “In case you heard otherwise, there is no radar outage and radar.weather.gov is fully operational!” the agency said in a statement.
It added that outdated information from isolated webpages had been circulating, but stressed that NWS radars were functioning as normal.
The clarification came amid widespread reports of a possible disruption to the country’s weather radar network, which had drawn attention because of a separate nationwide aviation shutdown.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had ordered all departing flights across the US to remain on the ground following a communications failure affecting air traffic control centres.
The agency cited “extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety” in its decision to halt departures.
US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the ground stop had been triggered by a communications issue affecting all Air Route Traffic Control Centres, which manage aircraft travelling across the country.
“FAA technicians are investigating the issue,” Duffy said in a social media post.
In an advisory, the FAA said: “Traffic should remain ground stopped until further notice.” It added that international flights arriving in the US would be handled on a case-by-case basis.
The order followed reports of radio frequency and radar outages affecting several air traffic control centres and terminal facilities. Flights had earlier been halted at Chicago’s O’Hare and Midway airports.
The ground stop was expected to remain in effect until at least 17:00 Eastern Time, although the FAA had not confirmed when normal operations would resume. The cause of the communications failure remained unclear.
The last nationwide ground stop was ordered in January 2023, when a technical failure disrupted the Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system, which provides pilots with essential safety information. Before that, a nationwide grounding had been imposed following the 11 September 2001 attacks.
