(Milford)– A lightning strike during last Friday’s thunderstorms knocked the National Weather Service’s local radio transmitter off the air…temporarily rendering weather radios useless in the area.
The bolt hit near the transmitter northwest of Milford.
An official with the National Weather Service, which owns and maintains the transmitter, told KUOO news the strike affected a telephone circuit that sends information to the transmitter from their office in Sioux Falls. Don Beck of the National Weather Service says officials with MCI and Qwest are working on the problem. He says it could be sometime Tuesday before the transmitter is back up and running.
The transmitter serves Clay, Dickinson, Emmet and Palo Alto counties as well as Jackson county, Minnesota.
The transmitter sets off alarms and transmits information to weather radios when it’s activated by the weather service during severe weather episodes.
