Don't forget that the NWWS remains a fast and free push service for NWS data.
Rob
________________________________
From: ldm-users <ldm-users-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> on behalf of Sebenste,
Gilbert <sebensteg@xxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, July 8, 2026 9:52 PM
To: Mike Zuranski <mike@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: LDM <ldm-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; NOAAPORT <noaaport@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [ldm-users] [External] Re: The end of NOAAport, the "cloud", and
UNIDATA
Mike,
Thanks for replying on this. I could come up with something that could ping the
servers once a minute to download the data...and possibly get a prompt IP ban
in the process. People (not you, just the opposite) are not understanding the
implications of all of this. At best, no NOAAport would delay data, including
critical watches and warnings and advisories; at worst, the data would no
longer be publicly available.
Right now, this seems to be *somewhat* less of a political issue than a
National Weather Service planning issue. I am OK with them going to the cloud
for AWIPS as long as there's redundancy (think outages that have happened over
the past several months to all providers). But for the private sector, the
military sector, and the educational sector, we could be blown back decades
with NOMADS being the only public source of NWS data. And I'm concerned that
AWS, Yahoo and Google cloud and others that save NWS data could shut it
off.Without a public onboarding to AWIPS, as of now, we only have models and
webscraping for everything else, if those options remain open.
Gilbert Sebenste
Meteorology Support Analyst
College of DuPage
On Jul 8, 2026, at 4:25 PM, Mike Zuranski <mike@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of COD’s system. Do not click
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Hi Gilbert and everyone,
I too would like to hear from Unidata on this front.
We've known the tentative end of NOAAPort/SBN has been coming for a while in
the form of the Raytheon contract ending right about that same time, fall 2027.
NWS is moving AWIPS into the cloud, as such will not need the SBN for WFOs
anymore after that. Last I heard there is no on-ramp for partners into their
cloud system, and I _believe_ the _hope_ was it would still stick around for
another couple of years... but I have yet to hear any sort of mechanism for
how that would actually continue.
The best thing you and others in your position can do now is prepare and plan
ahead for contingencies. Where else can you get data from? Using your NEXRAD2
example, that data is available on AWS, so is NEXRAD3, both managed by Unidata
in fact: https://registry.opendata.aws/noaa-nexrad/ As for other data, here's
a solid place to start: https://www.noaa.gov/nodd/datasets
Actually, if any NWS/NOAA/NODD folks are on here (hello), is there any intel on
this front that you could share? We would all greatly appreciate it I am sure.
Hope everyone is doing well!
Best,
-Mike
On Wed, Jul 8, 2026 at 5:02 PM Sebenste, Gilbert
<sebensteg@xxxxxxx<mailto:sebensteg@xxxxxxx>> wrote:
This month’s edition of TV Technology magazine that I received today was pages
and pages of their top story: C-band satellite, all 180 MHZ of it that remains,
was being auctioned off to wireless/cell providers in July 2027, and it isn’t
coming back once the auction is over. The C-Band spectrum is expected to sell
for over $3 billion for 5G and 6G to wireless carriers.
Broadcasters, who have used these frequencies reliably for decades to transmit
news, entertainment and sporting events around the globe, and the government,
transmitting weather data across NOAAport, must get off their channels soon
after the auction concludes. Most pay TV networks have switched to
IP-based/Internet transmission. Fox Sports, and sports networks had a panel
discussion at the recent National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) meeting
that was packed to the rafters, with people looking for reliable broadcast
transmission solutions. The complaints that Internet delivery is nowhere near
as reliable in the “final mile” as satellite transmission is, fell on deaf ears
to the FCC. But what about the National Weather Service, NOAA and UNIDATA?
While some, and maybe much, has been made of NOAA using AWIPS in the cloud by
that time…the same cannot be said for what will happen to .edu’s and .com’s,
and others who rely on C-Band for NOAAport data reception. The current FCC
mantra is “YOU figure it out how you’ll get that data from point ‘A’ to point
‘B’. ”.
We are just over one year out from all of this happening, and I am left in a
lurch wondering what is going to happen next year. I want to be prepared. I
cannot do this alone. There has been radio silence about this issue, except in
UNIDATA annual meeting notes. The train is pulling into the station for cloud
and IP-based delivery of data, and when it departs, how is UNIDATA, and how are
we, going to be a part of that train?
There is also concern about the loss of access to data. I’m hearing rumblings
of Level 2 radar data being discontinued from NOMADS in the not-too-distant
future. We use that in our classrooms extensively. Our
https://weather.cod.edu<https://weather.cod.edu/> web site uses the NOAAport
feed for much of our data and imagery. I don’t want it to go dark in about a
year. Does anyone have any answers at this point as to what will happen, and
how this will be handled?
With regards,
Gilbert Sebenste
Meteorology Support Analyst
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