The weather station atop Five Finger Lighthouse is operational again after more than two months offline, and it came back this fall instead of next spring thanks to the insistence of volunteers who care for the 91-year-old facility.

Three National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration technicians replaced the station’s tower and instruments Oct. 3-4. They teamed up with the Five Finger Lighthouse Society to haul gear and technicians to and from the island, which is about 75 miles north of Wrangell, in Frederick Sound.

The weather station “is up and running, and it’s an all new system ... reporting every 10 minutes instead of every hour,” said Jeff Erickson, president of the Five Finger Lighthouse Society.

The station went down sometime in July. By the beginning of August, Erickson was fielding calls from people wondering why it was not working.

“It’s widely used by fishermen and sport people and everybody,” he said.

He started emailing NOAA but the answer was that nothing could be done until the agency’s next scheduled maintenance trip, sometime in April or May 2027. “That’s unacceptable,” he said.

NOAA technicians normally reach Five Finger Island by flying to Sitka and catching a ride on a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter, Erickson said. This year that route was effectively closed. A Coast Guard MH-60 Jayhawk from Air Station Sitka crashed during a training flight June 22. All four crew members survived with minor injuries, but Erickson said the crash left the station short a helicopter and took the Five Finger trip off the schedule.

Erickson offered to take the technicians out on the society’s boat for a fee. NOAA told him there was no money for it.

“Well, this is a very important thing,” so never mind the fee, he said. “This is not going to be good, not having that up for the winter,”

NOAA called Erickson back with a proposal: The agency would ship the new equipment to Petersburg from NOAA’s base in Mississippi, have the society carry it out to the island and send technicians to install it.

The federal crews that maintain the weather station also service stations and ocean buoys around the country, the Great Lakes, the Bahamas and Guam, Erickson said. The agency has about 14 people who travel in teams of two or three.

The tower arrived in Petersburg on Sept. 21. The society delivered it to the island the next day. The aluminum tower stands 21 feet tall and comes in three pieces. “Pretty light, actually,” Erickson said.

After a delay due to weather, the NOAA crew arrived in Petersburg on Oct. 2. Their boxes arrived the morning of Oct. 3, and the society took the crew and gear to the island that day.

One of the three technicians, Ray Lee, has worked for the agency for 39 years and has been to Five Finger many times, Erickson said. “When we got out there, he’s like, ‘I put this thing up. … He can’t remember the year.”

By dark, the old mast was down and the new tower was up at the top of the lighthouse. They installed the instruments the next day in wind and rain and were finished by noon Oct. 4.

Along with the mast, the workers cleared out an old bank of batteries, several equipment boxes, wiring and sensors inside the lighthouse tower. “The brains” of the weather station now sit on the new tower.

Before leaving, the volunteers winterized the lighthouse. They added antifreeze and shut off the water.

The society had extended its boat insurance and pushed back its seasonal closing so the weather station job could be finished. NOAA agreed to chip in for the insurance and fuel.

The new weather station is now on a two-year inspection schedule.