National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office

The National Weather Service is proposing alternative terms and phrases for our winter weather hazard message headlines.  These alternative terms are meant to simplify and clarify the message in the winter weather hazard.

Below are a few examples of the proposed changes.
EXAMPLE 1
The current wording of a Winter Storm Watch is:  "THE NWS HAS ISSUED A WINTER STORM WATCH"
The proposed wording would rephrase to: "THE NWS FORECASTS THE POTENTIAL FOR HEAVY SNOWFALL"

EXAMPLE 2
The current wording of a Winter Weather Advisory is: "THE NWS HAS ISSUED A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY FOR FREEZING RAIN AND SNOW...."
The proposed wording would rephrase to: "THE NWS ADVISES CAUTION FOR FREEZING RAIN AND SNOW..."

EXAMPLE 3
The current wording of a Winter Storm Warning is: "THE NWS HAS ISSUED A WINTER STORM WARNING..."
The proposed wording would rephrase to: "THE NWS HAS ISSUED A WARNING FOR DANGEROUS CONDITIONS...  

Click on the below image for an example of the full Winter Weather Message

To view REAL-TIME examples of the proposed simplification wording of winter time products:

• Go to the Hazard Simplification Homepage
• Scroll down the page to the map of participating offices.
• The name of the office, under the map, will turn green if there is a winter weather hazard in effect.
• Click on the green link to view a comparison of the current and proposed hazard. 

Please provide feedback in this short NWS Product Survey  
***This standard survey form is used by NWS for all experimental products. For this demonstration, please focus on the following questions:
    Question 3: Let us know what you like about the proposed alternative
    Question 4: Let us know what you do not like about the proposed alternative
    Question 9: Comment on the current WWA system and suggest alternatives to this proposal
    Feel free to reply more than once as you review multiple products during the demonstration.

To ask general questions about this demonstration, or share comments about a specific, dated WFO message, please email the team at hazsimp@noaa.gov.We will answer as many questions as possible, depending on volume, and will add responses to frequently asked questions to the FAQ section.