Technicians are expected to begin refurbishment work on the National Weather Service’s Pueblo radar site Wednesday morning to replace original breakers and cables with new, modern fuses and cables.

The nation’s weather radar network is undergoing a series of upgrades and replacements intended to extend the useful life of sites for another decade or more. 

The outage for Pueblo’s site is scheduled to start Wednesday at 8:00 a.m. and projected to continue until 5:00 p.m. Sunday. During the maintenance period, neighboring radar sites in Denver; Grand Junction; Goodland and Dodge City, Kansas; Amarillo, Texas; and Albuquerque, New Mexico, will help fill the gap in coverage.

Last year, the Pueblo radar site was taken offline for repairs to a 22-year-old failed bull gear, a primary component that rotates the radar antenna. Repairs were expected to take 10 days but were completed more quickly than predicted.