diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 49380d52e..4dbf58104 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -11,6 +11,8 @@ and uses [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0.html).
 * [701](https://github.com/dbekaert/RAiDER/pull/701) - Fixed a few path typos and handle some edge cases, add unit tests, lint project
 * [672](https://github.com/dbekaert/RAiDER/pull/672) - Linted the project with `ruff`.
 * [683](https://github.com/dbekaert/RAiDER/pull/683) - Fixed a naive datetime and added default template to template generation argument
+* `prepFromGunw.check_weather_model_availability` now returns `False` for HRRR when outside the CONUS or AK coverage areas, rather than raising `ValueError`.
+  As a result, HRRR jobs run via HyP3 for GUNWs outside HRRR coverage will exit successfully without making any changes to the GUNW. 
 
 ### Fixed
 * [700](https://github.com/dbekaert/RAiDER/pull/700) - Fixed a few path typos and handle some edge cases
diff --git a/test/conftest.py b/test/conftest.py
index 004a2e67f..57b7757db 100644
--- a/test/conftest.py
+++ b/test/conftest.py
@@ -37,6 +37,8 @@ def factory(location: str = 'california-t71') -> Path:
             file_name = 'S1-GUNW-D-R-071-tops-20200130_20200124-135156-34956N_32979N-PP-913f-v2_0_4.nc'
         elif location == 'alaska':
             file_name = 'S1-GUNW-D-R-059-tops-20230320_20220418-180300-00179W_00051N-PP-c92e-v2_0_6.nc'
+        elif location == 'philippines':
+            file_name = 'S1-GUNW-D-R-032-tops-20200220_20200214-214625-00120E_00014N-PP-b785-v3_0_1.nc'
         else:
             raise NotImplementedError
         return TEST_DIR / 'gunw_test_data' / file_name
diff --git a/test/gunw_test_data/S1-GUNW-D-R-032-tops-20200220_20200214-214625-00120E_00014N-PP-b785-v3_0_1.nc b/test/gunw_test_data/S1-GUNW-D-R-032-tops-20200220_20200214-214625-00120E_00014N-PP-b785-v3_0_1.nc
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..6cb6b555b
Binary files /dev/null and b/test/gunw_test_data/S1-GUNW-D-R-032-tops-20200220_20200214-214625-00120E_00014N-PP-b785-v3_0_1.nc differ
diff --git a/test/test_GUNW.py b/test/test_GUNW.py
index 5b62676e8..8dc89ca65 100644
--- a/test/test_GUNW.py
+++ b/test/test_GUNW.py
@@ -364,6 +364,12 @@ def test_check_weather_model_availability_over_alaska(test_gunw_path_factory, we
     assert cond
 
 
+def test_check_hrrr_availability_outside_united_states(test_gunw_path_factory):
+    # S1-GUNW-D-R-032-tops-20200220_20200214-214625-00120E_00014N-PP-b785-v3_0_1.nc
+    test_gunw_path = test_gunw_path_factory(location='philippines')
+    assert not check_weather_model_availability(test_gunw_path, 'HRRR')
+
+
 @pytest.mark.parametrize('weather_model_name', ['ERA5', 'GMAO', 'MERRA2', 'HRRR'])
 def test_check_weather_model_availability_2(weather_model_name):
     gunw_id = Path("test/gunw_test_data/S1-GUNW-D-R-059-tops-20230320_20220418-180300-00179W_00051N-PP-c92e-v2_0_6.nc")
diff --git a/tools/RAiDER/aria/prepFromGUNW.py b/tools/RAiDER/aria/prepFromGUNW.py
index 1d8268b88..e4d8d26cb 100644
--- a/tools/RAiDER/aria/prepFromGUNW.py
+++ b/tools/RAiDER/aria/prepFromGUNW.py
@@ -110,14 +110,13 @@ def check_weather_model_availability(gunw_path: Path, weather_model_name: str) -
     Returns:
     -------
     bool:
-        True if both reference and secondary acquisitions are within the valid range. We assume that
-        reference_date > secondary_date (i.e. reference scenes are most recent)
+        True if both reference and secondary acquisitions are within the valid temporal and spatial ranges for the given
+        weather model. We assume that reference_date > secondary_date (i.e. reference scenes are most recent)
 
     Raises:
     ------
     ValueError
         - If weather model is not correctly referencing the Class from RAiDER.models
-        - HRRR was requested and it's not in the HRRR CONUS or HRRR AK coverage area
     """
     ref_slc_ids = get_slc_ids_from_gunw(gunw_path, reference_or_secondary='reference')
     sec_slc_ids = get_slc_ids_from_gunw(gunw_path, reference_or_secondary='secondary')
@@ -134,7 +133,7 @@ def check_weather_model_availability(gunw_path: Path, weather_model_name: str) -
         elif AK_GEO.intersects(gunw_poly):
             weather_model_name = 'HRRRAK'
         else:
-            raise ValueError('HRRR was requested but it is not available in this area')
+            return False
 
     # source: https://stackoverflow.com/a/7668273
     # Allows us to get weather models as strings