Flooding in Juneau has affected the National Weather Service’s ability to update weather forecasts on its website and marine weather radios in the region. That affects forecasts in Sitka, but there is a backup.
Spencer Fielding is a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Juneau. In an interview with KCAW on Wednesday (8-13-25) he said internet service to his office was cut off by the glacial outburst flood. Stations in Fairbanks and Anchorage are updating the website for them, but not all of the site is updating correctly, leaving some forecasts out of date. He says they’re working on a solution for the websites, but fixing the weather radio may take longer.
“Unfortunately, due to the fiber cut here in Juneau from the flood, the weather radio will not be updating with the latest forecast information,” Fielding said.
“When it is pushed out to the world, it’ll, unfortunately, just have what’s on it, and then it’ll expire, and then we’ll just go silent until they’re able to fix the fiber line that was damaged,” he said.
Fielding says he doesn’t have a timeline for when the fiber optic cable will be repaired. But there is a backup– at least online. Forecasts on the “low-bandwidth” section of the National Weather Service website remain up-to-date. You can find a link to those forecasts here.
