MISSOULA, MONT. — As part of the National Weather Service’s Risk Simplification Project, several winter weather warnings have been consolidated or replaced.

The National Weather Service used feedback from the public and its partners as well as social science research to make its messages easier for the general public to understand.

“We will consolidate wind chill warnings with extreme cold warnings and watches. then cold weather advisories and wind chill advisories,” said Marty Whitmore, warning coordination meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

The first notable change is wind chill watches and warnings. To emphasize that the cold stays cold even without wind, these measures are now grouped into extreme cold watches and warnings, a term used only in the lower 48 states since this winter.

Wind chill advisories are completely replaced by cold weather advisories.

Frost warnings also change, focusing on vegetation and agriculture.

Severe Frost Watches and Warnings will be grouped together to form Frost Watches and Warnings, based on the growing season and frost impacts.

We will likely see more changes in the years to come.

“So there has been talk of maybe removing the term advisory,” Whitmore said, citing previous correspondence regarding weather messages, “making sure that we still get that moderate level impact in some form of message, but without using the term “opinion”. just to eliminate any confusion. But these still need to be finalized.

When further changes are made, the NBC Montana Severe Weather Alert Team will keep you informed to ensure you can make an informed decision, regardless of the weather.