NOAA All Hazards Radio has been around since 1960. I have a Midland Weather Radio receiver in my house because we live in a rural area. We certainly do have weather events; Severe Thunderstorms being the most common. We have also had Tornados, Floods, Hurricanes, Winter Storms and Blizzards. It is useful to have, especially when the cell phone and/or public network go down.
Our brothers to the north have is similar system: Weather Radio Canada
That system operates on the same frequencies and manner as the NOAA All Hazards Radio system.
It appears that the Canadian government is discontinuing service as of March 16, 2026 and replacing it with an app. That seems short sighted to me; I don’t know how many users of Weather Radio Canada there are, but I’d bet there are quite a few. It also assumes that everyone in Canada has a smart phone. Given the economy and the expense of a new iPhone (or Android), I think this is far from the case.
I did get thinking about what would happen here if the NOAA system went away. Could the Emergency Alert System still get reliable local alerts out over the air? I know that most of the radio and TV stations in this area still monitor the NOAA frequencies as a third source for local activations. Over the years, EAS activation for things like Tornado Warnings has saved quite a few lives, especially out in the mid west.
Hopefully, our government officials are smarter….
