Minnesotans Will No Longer Need to Brace for Wind Chill Alerts

🎶 Oh the weather outside is frightful... 🎶 I don't know about you, but it felt like it got cold quite suddenly. Tis the season, I know, but I'm just not used to it yet.

Throughout the winter we see all sorts of different types of weather in Minnesota. And with winter comes your usual suspects of alerts from the National Weather Service.

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Common Winter Weather Alerts from the National Weather Service

The most common ones would have to be the winter storm watch, warning, and advisory.

My favorite way to tell the difference between a watch and a warning is the picture that's gone around online many times comparing storms and tacos. I've recreated it for you in case you haven't seen it:

As for an advisory, though, that's just to let people know that winter weather is expected so be careful while driving. It's a step below a watch in my eyes.

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Remember When NOAA Added 'Snow Squall' to Their Alerts?

Another winter weather alert that's actually pretty new is called a snow squall. This was added a few years ago but I've only seen it used a couple of times.

NOAA says that snow squalls usually last less than an hour and are "sudden white-out conditions combined with falling temperatures [that] produce icy roads in just a few minutes."

Taking it back to common winter alerts, other ones that we see all the time in Minnesota are the wind chill watches, warnings, and advisories. But we won't be seeing those anymore!

National Weather Service is Getting Rid of Wind Chill Watch, Warning, and Advisory

NOAA made the announcement that they will no longer be using the terms wind chill watch, warning, and advisory and we're going to see that change this winter.

They say it's to simplify and "improve messaging of winter hazards and provide better decision support."

So instead of seeing the words 'wind chill' we will now see the words 'extreme cold'.

A wind chill watch now becomes an extreme cold watch, a wind chill warning will be an extreme cold warning, and a wind chill advisory will now be an extreme cold advisory. That'll be something to get used to this winter!