Cantwell Reintroduces Bill to Modernize Nation’s Weather Radio

WASHINGTON, D.C.– U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) chair of the committee, and Senators Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Jerry Moran (R–KS), and Gary Peters (D-MI) introduced the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Weather Radio Modernization Act.
The Act will authorize the modernization of the nation’s weather communication and radio service as the country faces increasingly powerful floods, fires, and hurricanes. This legislation is an important next step to Sen. Cantwell’s five-point plan to bolster the United States’ weather readiness, which she outlined in aletterto President Donald Trump earlier this month.
“NOAA Weather Radio is our nation's weather infrastructure that broadcasts 24/7 to keep people informed with immediate, reliable weather information, including timely weather alerts,” said Sen. Cantwell.“This bill helps to upgrade the system with the best technology and communications systems, replacing copper with fiber to reach more people, especially in rural areas. It also directs NIST to develop standards for better warning technology and makes sure NOAA keeps its weather scientist and forecast jobs fully staffed.”
In recent years, Washington state has experienced a costlybomb cyclone, back to backatmospheric rivers, a record-breaking and deadlyheat dome, historic flooding that damaged more than2,000 homes and businesses, along with 1,037 wildfires this year alone that burned more than 40,464 acres across the state and 308,000 acres in 2024.
NOAA’s National Weather Service operates a nationwide network of public radio stations that broadcast weather warnings, forecasts and emergency information 24/7. NOAA Weather Radio includes more than1,000 transmitters, covering all 50 states, adjacent coastal waters, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the U.S. Pacific Territories. Broadcasts include warnings, watches and forecasts for natural disasters like storms, fire, earthquakes, tsunamis, and even environmental hazards such as chemical or oil spills.
The NOAA Weather Radio Modernization Act would:
As states continue to battle severe weather, many communities have faced weather radiooutages, including within the last year, when National Weather Service weather radio transmitters in southeastMichiganandSouth Carolinawent down and were unable to send critical weather alerts to residents during storms. Last year, the United States experienced27 weather and climate-related disaster eventsthat each exceeded $1 billion dollars in damages, resulting in 568 deaths.
There are currently 17 National Weather Radio transmitters in Washington state. Each transmitter location, call sign, and coverage range is displayed below.

Under Sen. Cantwell’s leadership as Chair of the Commerce Committee, a previous version of this legislationpassed the Senatein December 2023, but was not enacted into law. Sen. Cantwell is a champion of NOAA and helped secure$3.3 billion in NOAA investmentsin the Inflation Reduction Act to help communities prepare for and adapt to climate change, boost science needed to understand changing weather and climate patterns, and invest in advanced computer technologies that are critical for extreme weather prediction and emergency response. HerFire Ready Nation Act, bipartisan legislation to strengthen NOAA’s ability to help forecast, prevent, and fight wildfires, passed the Commerce committee unanimously earlier this year and now heads to the full Senate for consideration. In 2011, shesecuredWashington state’s first coastal Doppler radar in Grays Harbor County, enabling forecasters to better determine wind speed and rainfall of incoming storms.
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