What the National Weather Service Alert Changes Mean

Winter weather is on the way but are you ready to understand the latest alert system devised by the National Weather Service (NWS)? Beginning this fall and winter, the agency has changed the way that it groups and issues weather alerts. Read on for what you need to know about these changes.

New Changes in Store for How the National Weather Service Communicates

In an effort to simplify its alert system, the NWS is rolling out changes to its standard way of decimating information. The changes are a part of the overall NWS Hazard Simplification initiative, designed to make it easier for Americans to understand and assess the weather risks for their particular community. As part of this initiative, several types of alerts have been eliminated or consolidated.

The government agency took feedback from the public and experts in the meteorological field to come up with the changes. The agency said that all of the changes have been supported by researchers as well as social scientists that are experts in how humans process communication to make decisions.

As part of the latest changes to roll out this fall, w​ind chill watches, warnings, and advisories have all been eliminated. The new communication process has consolidated these types of alerts into extreme cold watches, extreme cold warnings, and cold weather advisories. These new alerts will also detail the expected drop of cold wind chills, information that had been previously listed in former wind chill alerts.

The agency said that the new NWS Cold Product Suite will give their scientists the ability to relay how dangerous the cold temperatures are with or without wind. The NWS also detailed that different regions will use different sets of criteria. For instance, temperatures will not need to dip as low to trigger an extreme cold weather watch in Florida when compared to northern areas such as Minnesota.

Understanding the New Alerts

You can count on the NWS to issue extreme cold watches when either temperatures or wind chills dipping to dangerous levels are a possibility. Warnings are issued when these levels are expected or are already happening. The warning should serve as a reminder to dress warmly and take care to cover all exposed skin.

On a less severe note, cold weather advisories will be issued when an area is expecting cold temperatures or wind chills. While these advisories do not indicate extreme cold weather, those in the impacted zones should still dress appropriately.

The agency will no longer issue hard freeze watches and warnings. Instead, the already existing freeze watches and warnings will now incorporate these hard freeze communications if needed.

For reference, a freeze happens when the mercury drops to 32 degrees or colder. The majority of live vegetation dies when the temperatures fall to 28 degrees or less. This barrier is defined as a hard freeze by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Freeze watches are put into effect when these cold conditions are possible while warnings are issued when the conditions are imminent. Likewise, frost advisories will continue to be hoisted when a frost could cause minor damage to vegetation. It is not unusual for frosts to occur when the temperatures bottom out at 36 degrees. This is more common in rural areas when compared to urban centers.

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