The Weather Network viewers in Fort Frances no doubt have noticed a change in the look of the channel in recent days.
While local weather information continues to broadcast every 10 minutes, the anchors, meteorologists, and commercials have been replaced with a black screen.
A spokesperson for The Weather Network said Thursday the problem, ironically, has been caused by inclement weather.
“What happened in Fort Frances is that the cable head ends—where all of the signals are received— was hit by lightning a few days ago, and that created obviously a technical problem at the head end,” said Luc Perreault, vice-president of affiliate relations and regulatory affairs with The Weather Network.
Perreault added he did not have definitive information on when the lightning struck the equipment, but said from reports he had received that it could have happened sometime last weekend.
“Because we’re not physically in Fort Frances, we have to rely on the technicians there to tell us what happened and which pieces of equipment are broken,” he noted.
“We do supply some equipment to the operators to localize the weather information. That equipment may be defective. We don’t have a final answer on that.”
Perreault said it would be unusual if the weather equipment was damaged.
“The equipment we use is very robust, but lightning would do that to electronic equipment,” he remarked.
The whole problem will be fixed in a matter of days, he pledged.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
