"A widespread weather reporting outage affected Alaska Monday, causing dozens of stations used by pilots and forecasters to go offline. No flight cancellations were immediately reported.

More than 50 weather stations across the state were offline, which is just under a third of the entire network, said Rick Thoman, a climate specialist with the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

“This is a particularly bad day of a problem that’s been going on for years with these weather stations,” Thoman said.

Automated Weather Observing Systems measure and broadcast weather data, such as wind, precipitation and visibility. Pilots use that data to plan flights and get clearance to take off. Thoman said that on any given day in Alaska, up to 20 of these stations are not reporting."