Changes this winter with cold weather advisories

MASON CITY — With colder temperatures in the forecast this week, it’s time to remind you that the National Weather Service has made some changes starting with the upcoming winter weather season on hazards dealing with cold weather. They’re getting rid of the Wind Chill Watch and Warning advisories and replacing them with the terms “Cold Weather Advisory” and “Extreme Cold Watch or Warning”.

National Weather Service Des Moines office warning coordinator meteorologist Chad Hahn says they are doing that to improve the message they want to send to people that cold is dangerous, with or without wind.  “The main reason we’re doing it is really to emphasize that cold is cold regardless of whether or not there’s wind associated with it or not. We’re focused on simplifying our messaging by using that single product hype, and the thing about it is we’re changing some of the criteria as well to be consistent with climatology, and we’ve adjusted that for impacts as well.”

A Cold Advisory in north-central Iowa will be issued if the “feels like” temperature, with or without wind, is forecast to be between -25 and -34 below zero, while an Extreme Cold Warning will be issued if the “feels like” temperature with or without wind will be -35 below or colder. The criteria for those is slightly different south of US Highway 20.

Hahn says the weather service offices that serve Iowa wanted to start having some consistency when issuing those advisories.  “In past years, weather office to weather office had different criteria, and it didn’t have much consistency across the state. Now, because we’ve realigned it, we do have more consistency across our offices that serve the state of Iowa, following a much more climatologically embraced methodology.”

To learn more about the cold weather advisory changes, click here