Anchorage, Alaska — Before Morris heads out for days in search of Nashoeunk bearded seals, beluga whales or salmon, he watches the weather forecast on TV.
But this isn’t the weather segment of the local TV station – there isn’t one like that. Instead, it’s a program designed for people living in rural and largely roadless Alaska, with separate forecasts for boaters, airmen, and residents to help decide when they’re safe. Can hunt, fish or fly.
“Alaska Weather” has been must-see TV for 47 years in a state where extreme weather dictates everyday life. But the daily program, the only weather show produced by the National Weather Service, will have its final on-air broadcast Friday, with commercial considerations ending its distribution on public television stations in Juno and Fairbanks.
From then on, it will only be available on YouTube. That has led to fears that some of the state’s most vulnerable residents – those in remote Indigenous communities where internet service is unreliable, or those who are older and uncomfortable with accessing information from phones or computers – may find themselves at a disadvantage in Alaska’s vast Will be left on the wrong side of digital. split.
In Stebbins, a Yup’ik village of about 630 residents on St. Michael’s Island in the Bering Strait, Nashoenak said internet is slow and can be cut for several days. The program explained that the Nashonak and other Alaska Natives are allowed to hunt and fish for a living under federal law, whether spending more than $6 per gallon of gas to fuel ATVs or boats is justified.
Nashoank said, “It’s important and beneficial to many of us… something we can depend on.”
Alaska Public Media has traditionally provided the show to the Alaska Rural Communications System through its Fairbanks station, a chain of state-owned, low-power transmitters that broadcast free programming throughout much of rural Alaska.
But Alaska Public Media said in January it would stop distribution unless it could secure $50,000 a year from the federal government. The Weather Service’s parent agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, agreed to pay the money, but a subsequent review by the network revealed that its total annual cost was actually $200,000.
“It made it impossible for us to figure out a way forward that would work,” said Carrie Heasley, chief of the National Weather Service’s emergency services and multimedia branch in Anchorage.
Linda Wei, chief content officer for Alaska Public Media, said the network could not continue distributing the show for free.
“It is no longer sustainable for us to continue like this,” he said. “This is not a decision we made lightly.”
When the show aired in 1976, Alan Eustis was its first anchor. The Lancaster, Pennsylvania resident found out how much people were appreciating the program when he visited remote villages in Alaska.
“A lot of them use the information to go out whaling during whaling season, and we have satellite photos showing where the ice was,” he said of federally permitted subsistence hunting. “If there’s any reason to keep the show going, it’s really got to be supporting these people.”
Hasley said that Eustis and his successors did the show live every day at Alaska Public Media’s studios until 2017, when the station decided it could use that space in a different way.
Production was moved to the Weather Service’s office in Anchorage, where a small closet was cleared out for a mini TV studio with a green screen and a single camera.
Two meteorologists produce the weather show 365 days a year, creating forecasts and maps and filming the program in three segments. They are sent to Alaska Public Media, where technicians compile the 30-minute program.
Now, the three forecast segments will be uploaded on the National Meteorological Service YouTube channel.
Rick Thoman, a climate expert at the International Arctic Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, called the end of the on-air broadcast a shame.
“If you don’t have good internet connectivity, you’re going to have a hard time getting weather information in western and northern Alaska,” he said.
During a visit to Alaska last month, First Lady Jill Biden lauded the government’s efforts to address connectivity disparities in the nation’s largest state, especially in Alaska Native villages. On Monday, the government announced an additional $1 billion to help build broadband infrastructure in Alaska.
But it will take time to build that network in remote areas. Even with a strong internet link, things can go wrong.
Earlier this month, about 20,000 Alaskans on the north and west coasts lost their internet when ice on the Beaufort Sea floor cut fiber optic cables. Ships cannot come to repair it until the sea ice melts, possibly in early August.
“In rural Alaska, information distribution has been limited to a communication channel called the Internet, which is very difficult for people to access,” Thoman said. “No matter how tech savvy you are, if your internet is down, you can’t get to it.”
Both the Weather Service and Alaska Public Media said they are open to further discussions.
Hasley also solicited public comment from rural residents, and explored other ways the weather service could provide information, with some suggesting radio programs or podcasts. However, none of these support graphics.
“We have relied on TV as a medium to use in this partnership with Alaska Public Media for so long, and there doesn’t seem to be another way that can really fill the gap,” she said.
