As 5G House Hearing Looms, One Expert Brings Up a Different Concern

Meteorologist warns that 5G activation could set the accuracy of weather forecasting back decades.

Wednesday, February 02, 2022 at 10:03 AM ET

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An important part of aviation, weather forecasting, could be affected by the activation of 5G networks. [File Photo: Adobe Stock]

Key Takeaways:

The activation of 5G networks threatens to corrupt weather data, potentially setting forecasting technology back 20-30 years due to interference with critical water vapor sensing frequencies.
Beyond weather data, 5G signals are also a concern for disrupting aircraft radio altimeters, which could compromise aviation safety, especially in low-visibility situations.
Experts propose that mitigating these risks requires the FCC to protect relevant frequencies and the wireless industry to develop technology with sufficient noise reduction to prevent data contamination.

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Airliners aren’t the only faction of aviation that could be impacted by the activation of 5G networks. Meteorologists and experts in forecasting technology say the activation of 5G could corrupt weather data to the point that all pilots and others that rely on weather information could be operating with compromised and potentially incorrect information.

“The loss of fidelity from 5G could put the technology back 20 or 30 years,” said William Mahoney, director of the Research Applications Laboratory at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).