The National Weather Service Modifies Its Cold Weather Advisory Process

The National Weather Service Modifies Its Cold Weather Advisory Process

The National Weather Service said that its watch, warning, and advisory tools for cold weather forecasts have been changed.

In a news release, NWS said the change was made to “improve messaging of winter hazards and provide better decision support.”

The change is also part of the group’s Hazard Simplification Initiative, which, according to the press release, “combines public and partner engagements and social science research to improve and evolve our alerting system.”

The revisions are as follows:

Extreme Cold Consolidation and Renaming

  • Wind Chill Watches will be renamed to an Extreme Cold Watch
  • Wind Chill Warnings will be renamed to an Extreme Cold Warning
  • Wind Chill Advisory will be renamed a Cold Weather Advisory

Freeze Consolidation

  • Hard Freeze Watches will be renamed to a Freeze Watch
  • Hard Freeze Warnings will be consolidated to a Freeze Warning

NWS said these changes are meant to make it clear that cold weather and temperatures can be dangerous with or without wind. This is to clear up a common misunderstanding that extreme cold only means cold temperatures with wind.

“Dangerously cold weather can accompany or follow wintry precipitation, and the cold messaging can be overshadowed by the wintry precipitation,” it said.

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