NWS Announces Changes for Winter Weather Season
NWS Announces Changes for Winter Weather Season
The National Weather Service (NWS) will consolidate and change the names of some of the cold season terminology it uses beginning on October 1.
The primary reason for the change is to account for the cold, with or without wind, and the fact that cold weather itself, with or without wind, can be dangerous.
The changes include the following: • Wind chill watch will become extreme cold watch • Wind chill warning will become extreme cold warning • Wind chill advisory will become cold weather advisory
Issuing criteria by county will be:
Extreme Cold Warning
Residents of Grant, Roberts, Codington and Deuel Counties in South Dakota and Traverse and Big Stone Counites in Minnesota: Actual temperature or wind chill equal to or less than -40°F.
Cold Weather Advisory
Residents of Grant, Roberts, Codington and Deuel Counties in South Dakota and Traverse and Big Stone counites in Minnesota: Actual temperature or wind chill equal to or less than -30°F
Officials with NWS have never issued hard freeze watches or hard freeze warnings, so there is no change there. Freeze watch remains freeze watch and freeze warning remains freeze warning.
Lastly, a technical change is that cold weather headlines will now be sent under the Non-Precipitation Warnings / Watches / Advisories (NPW) product identifier instead of the Winter Weather Warnings / Watches / Advisories (WSW) product identifier.
The VTEC for Extreme Cold Warning will be EC.W and Cold Weather Advisory will be CW.Y. This technical detail is most likely only a concern if having a computer code set to search for different products.
NWS officials remind the public that a watch means that a possible weather or water event could be a threat to life and property (there is still uncertainty).
A warning means that a significant weather or water event is expected to be a threat to life and property (there is high probability).
An advisory is for less serious weather or water events that, if caution is used, should have little to no significant impacts to life and property.
