I spend most of my week tracking where movies land after they leave theaters. This is not one of those weeks. With flooding across Southern California and the remnants of Hurricane Polo pushing more rain toward the Southwest and Texas, the question in my group chats isn't "is that new thriller on Netflix yet?" It's "how do I get live coverage on my TV when I don't have cable?"

Good news: this is one of the easiest watch problems to solve, and most of the answer is free. The steps below go from the fastest free option to the paid stuff, with the gotchas noted along the way. Everything here works for any storm, not just this one, so bookmark it. The time-sensitive part is set off near the bottom.

Step 1: Open a free national news stream (two minutes, no account)

The three broadcast networks all run 24/7 streaming news channels that cost nothing and don't require a login:

  • ABC News Live in the ABC News app, on Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, Google TV and YouTube.
  • CBS News 24/7 in the CBS News app and on the same devices. CBS also runs regional feeds for Los Angeles, the Bay Area and Sacramento inside that app, which matters here.
  • NBC News NOW in the NBC News app and on Peacock's free tier.

During a major flood event these channels tend to simulcast the local affiliate's coverage for long stretches. That's the quickest way to get pictures on a screen.

Gotcha: the national feeds go back to national programming the moment the story cools off. If you want the street-by-street stuff (which freeway is closed, which canyon is under an evacuation warning), you need the local station itself. That's Step 2.

Step 2: Go straight to the local station's own stream

This is the step most people skip because they assume local TV is locked behind cable. It isn't, at least not during breaking news. Nearly every major California station streams its live coverage for free through its own app and website, and most also run it live on YouTube.

For Los Angeles, that means KTLA, KCAL News (which shares a newsroom with KCBS), ABC7, NBC4 and FOX 11. In the Bay Area, KGO (ABC7), KPIX, KNTV and KTVU. Sacramento has KCRA, which is famously relentless during weather events. San Diego has KNSD, KGTV and KFMB. Search the station's call letters plus "live" on YouTube and you'll usually land on the feed within seconds.

If you're downstream of Polo in Arizona or Texas, the same trick applies. KHOU in Houston, KSAT in San Antonio and the Phoenix stations all do wall-to-wall streaming when the water rises.

Gotcha: outside of breaking coverage, many station apps stream a separate "digital-only" newscast rather than the broadcast signal, because the network primetime shows are blocked from streaming there. That's fine for storm coverage. Just don't expect the app to show you the 10 p.m. drama afterward.

Step 3: Put a free news channel on the big screen

If you'd rather have something running in the background on the living room TV, the free ad-supported services have you covered:

  • Local Now is a free app owned by the same company as The Weather Channel, and it carries local news and weather feeds by city. It's the closest free thing to "just turn on the weather."
  • Pluto TV, The Roku Channel, Tubi and Samsung TV Plus all have live news lineups that include the network streaming channels from Step 1 and, in many cases, local station feeds.
  • Peacock's free tier includes NBC News NOW and, during big events, often the local NBC affiliate's coverage.

Gotcha: several of these services carry channels with "weather" in the name that are actually pre-recorded loops with a forecast graphic, not live reporters. If the anchor hasn't blinked in ten minutes, it's a loop. Stick to the news channels for live coverage.

Step 4: If you specifically want The Weather Channel

Some people just want The Weather Channel. I get it. It's the comfort-food channel of disasters, and its field team is genuinely good. Here's the thing cord-cutters don't always realize: it is not on YouTube TV, and it hasn't been on Hulu + Live TV either. The two most popular live TV services in the country skip it.

You have three real routes:

  1. The Weather Channel's own streaming subscription. The channel sells a direct-to-consumer live stream inside its app for a few dollars a month (it launched at $2.99, with a cheaper annual option). This is the cheapest legitimate way to get the actual channel. Check the official site for the current price, because it has crept up before.
  2. Frndly TV. Starting around $8 a month, this small family-friendly bundle carries The Weather Channel live, and it's the only cheap live TV service that does. There's normally a free trial.
  3. Fubo or DirecTV Stream. Both carry The Weather Channel, but their base plans run roughly $85 to $90 a month. Only worth it if you were already planning to buy a full cable replacement for sports or something else.

Gotcha: carriage changes, and "my friend says Sling has it" is not a source. Before you pay, plug your ZIP code into the service's channel lookup on its official site and confirm the channel is there. Five minutes of checking beats a month of the wrong subscription.

Step 5: Buy the antenna anyway

Every one of the steps above depends on your internet staying up. During a flood, internet and cell service are often the first things to get flaky. A basic indoor antenna costs $20 to $30 and pulls in ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and PBS over the air, free, forever, with no app updates and no buffering wheel.

If you own a TV, it almost certainly has a tuner. Plug the antenna into the coax jack, run a channel scan, done.

Gotcha: Los Angeles is hilly, and reception in the Valley or on the wrong side of a ridge can be uneven with a cheap flat antenna. Do the channel scan on a calm day, not when the rain is already coming down, and reposition the antenna near a window facing Mount Wilson if you're in LA. Sacramento and San Diego are much easier.

Step 6: Add the feeds that aren't TV but are more useful

When it's your neighborhood on the map, TV is the second-best source. Keep these open on your phone:

  • The National Weather Service office pages for Los Angeles/Oxnard, San Diego, Sacramento and the Bay Area post warnings the instant they're issued, well before an anchor reads them.
  • Cal OES and your county's emergency management site carry evacuation orders and shelter locations.
  • Caltrans QuickMap shows live road closures and traffic cameras, which is the fastest way to know whether a route is passable.
  • NOAA Weather Radio streams are available through several free apps if you want continuous audio while you do other things.

Gotcha: none of these are "watching" in the Netflix sense, and they won't show you a reporter standing in a river. But they're the ones that tell you to leave.

Step 7: Set your backups before you need them

Download the local station app and the NWS pages now, while you have signal. Turn on Wireless Emergency Alerts in your phone settings if you ever turned them off. Charge the portable battery. If you went with the antenna, leave it connected. The whole point of this list is that you shouldn't be figuring it out with two inches of water in the garage.

The time-sensitive part (early October 2026)

This week's flooding in Southern California is tied to a historic moisture plume from Hurricane Polo's remnants, and forecasters expect the threat to spread east across Arizona and into Texas over the next several days. So if you're reading this in Houston or Austin, the local station step above is about to matter to you too. The Weather Channel has been running extended live coverage, and the CBS News regional streams for LA have been carrying KCAL's team most of the day. Expect the national feeds to stay on the story while it's active and to drift back to normal programming once the rain does. Everything else in this guide stays true whenever the next storm comes.

I'll be honest: I wrote this partly because I couldn't answer the question fast enough for my own family last night, and a movie person who can't find a live stream is a little embarrassing. Now we all know. Stay dry, check on your neighbors, and I'll be back to arguing about streaming release windows as soon as the sky clears.

Rachel

— Rachel Ortiz