Critical Weather Day declared
Critical Weather Day ...REMINDER: CRITICAL WEATHER DAY DECLARED...
This is a reminder that a Critical Weather Day has been declared because of wildfire ops over portions of the Northwest.
A “Critical Weather Day” is an internal NWS operations posture. When one is declared, NWS postpones scheduled software, hardware and network changes at the affected offices so that nothing is disturbed while forecasters are working high-impact weather. Emergency changes still get made, but they need senior sign-off. It is a signal about how NWS is protecting its own systems — it is not a forecast or a warning, and it does not tell you anything about conditions where you live.
Affected offices: NWS Central Operations, National Centers, and Weather Forecast Offices.
- Starts
- Ends
- Reason
- Wildfire ops over portions of the Northwest.
- Who
- NWS Central Operations, National Centers, and Weather Forecast Offices
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Exactly as NWS transmitted it. Everything above is our plain-English reading of this text — if the two ever disagree, this is the authoritative version.
000
NOUS42 KWNO 011201
ADASDM
SENIOR DUTY METEOROLOGIST NWS ALERT ADMINISTRATIVE MESSAGE
NWS CENTRAL OPERATIONS COLLEGE PARK MD
1201Z SAT AUG 01 2026
...REMINDER: CRITICAL WEATHER DAY DECLARED...
A Critical Weather Day has been declared for...
- START: 1200Z Sat Aug 01 2026
- END: 1200Z Sun Aug 02 2026
- WHO: NWS Central Operations, National Centers, and
Weather Forecast Offices
- REASON: Wildfire ops over portions of the Northwest.
All scheduled software/hardware/network changes for the
impacted offices will be postponed until the CWD has ended.
Any emergency changes will be evaluated and approved by
senior management officials or their designees. NWS
offices should contact their sector offices for further
questions about this CWD.
Please visit the CWD status page for more information:
https://www.nco.ncep.noaa.gov/status/cwd/
Kempisty/SDM/NCO