NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WGNS) — The National Weather Service (NWS) office in Nashville is set to perform a critical upgrade to its Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS) from Monday morning, May 19, through Wednesday evening, May 21, 2025. This upgrade comes as Middle Tennessee faces an active weather pattern with the potential for severe storms Monday and Tuesday. AWIPS is the backbone system used by NWS to monitor weather conditions, integrate vital data, and issue life-saving alerts such as severe weather warnings and watches. While the upgrade will not impact core forecast services, some weather information channels will experience temporary interruptions.

What to Expect During the Upgrade: All NOAA Weather Radio transmitters maintained by NWS Nashville in Middle Tennessee — including those in Clarksville, Waverly, Nashville, Centerville, Lobelville, Clifton, Lawrenceburg, Hickman, LaFayette, Cookeville, and Spencer — will be off the air during the upgrade period. This outage is unavoidable and will last from Monday morning through Wednesday evening. To maintain continuous service, forecast operations will be conducted by the National Weather Service backup office in Knoxville/Morristown, Tennessee. Core services such as weather watches, warnings, and advisories will continue uninterrupted despite the AWIPS downtime. Local graphical forecast products, climate data, and probabilistic weather maps hosted on the NWS Nashville website will not be updated during this time, affecting resources such as the Graphical Hazardous Weather Outlook and Probabilistic DSS webpages.

Severe Weather Threat This Week: Residents of Middle Tennessee should remain alert as the region is forecast to experience multiple rounds of thunderstorms Monday and Tuesday, with a heightened risk for severe weather including damaging winds, large hail, and possible tornadoes. Given the timing of the AWIPS upgrade and the NOAA Weather Radio outage, it is especially important to use alternative ways to stay informed during this critical weather period.

What You Should Do: Because NOAA Weather Radio will be unavailable, it is strongly recommended that residents, emergency management, and media partners rely on other sources for weather information from May 19–21: trusted weather apps and mobile alerts, radio news broadcasts, social media like Rutherford Weather, the NWS Nashville website and social media updates, and direct communications from emergency management agencies.

NWS Nashville Remains Available: Despite the AWIPS system upgrade, the NWS Nashville office will remain staffed and operational 24/7 to assist with public and partner inquiries by phone and other means. This scheduled upgrade is essential to maintain the reliability of weather services in Middle Tennessee. The National Weather Service appreciates the public’s understanding and urges everyone to prepare and stay informed as severe weather moves through the area early next week.