SILVER SPRING, Md. — NOAA’s National Weather Service announced it is simplifying a suite of cold weather forecast alerts — including renaming wind chill watches, warnings and advisories — to clarify messaging of winter hazards.
This effort is part of the Hazard Simplification initiative, which integrates public and partner engagements and social science research to improve and evolve the National Weather Service’s alerting system.
The following changes will take effect on Oct. 1:
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
The changes are intended to clarify that cold can be dangerous with or without wind to address what the service said is a common misconception — that extreme cold is only tied to colder temperatures when there is wind. Dangerously cold weather can accompany or follow wintry precipitation, and the cold messaging can be overshadowed by the wintry precipitation, according to the National Weather Service.
An official Service Change Notification was released on March 26 announcing the intent to roll-out these changes on the first day of October.
NOAA will release its official Winter Outlook on Oct. 17.