New Weather Alerts, Warnings Coming For Minnesota This Winter

As we approach the cold weather season in Minnesota, there are some new types of weather warnings and alerts you're going to need to be aware of.

The National Weather Service has been making changes to its various types of watches, warnings, and advisories over recent years as part of what they call their "Hazard Simplification Initiative". This is another step in that process, one that will be of high importance to people living in Minnesota during the cold weather months.

Why are these changes being made?

We get a lot of weather advisories, watches, and warnings thrown our way in Minnesota each winter, and knowing what they all mean can be pretty confusing. That's the reason this initiative to use clearer, less "jargony" language is underway in Minnesota and elsewhere across the country.

The end goal is to make sure it is easy to understand the severity of the weather alert and what actions need to be taken. This process includes simplifying, consolidating, and renaming some of the various advisories, special weather statements, watches, and warnings and further standardizing the terms used around the country.

READ MORE: Learn about the Winter Storm Severity Index used for bad winter weather

The Twin Cities office of the National Weather Service recently highlighted some new changes coming for us this winter, which address how cold weather alerts will be discussed in the season ahead and beyond.

What are the new weather alerts to look out for this winter?

As explained in the NOAA Hazard Simplification documents about cold weather alerts, here are the new types of alerts to be on the lookout for, what they mean, and what they are replacing:

• Extreme Cold Watch: This new type of watch will combine wind chill watches and extreme cold watches, indicating that extreme cold is possible, but not yet certain or not yet happening.
• Extreme Cold Warning: This new type of warning replaces wind chill warnings and extreme cold warnings. It indicates that severe, dangerous cold conditions are present or about to arrive.
• Cold Weather Advisory: This replaces wind chill advisories. It indicates cold conditions that are less severe than that for an Extreme Cold Warning, but are still hazardous.

Why make these changes? One of the key reasons is to recognize that hazardous or extreme cold conditions can and do happen even if there is no notable wind chill factor.

Some additional alerts related to fall/spring frost & freeze conditions are being changed. The new terms include:

• Freeze Watch: This replaces freeze watches and hard freeze watches, streamlining the messaging to alert the public that conditions cold enough to cause frost or freezing conditions for the ground and plant life are possible, but not yet certain or not yet happening.
• Freeze Warning: This replaces freeze warnings and hard freeze warnings, streamlining the messaging to alert the public that conditions cold enough to cause frost or freezing conditions for the ground or plant life are happening or about to happen.

What are the criteria for these new alerts?

While part of the goal of this new streamlining process is to unify the language used around the country, what triggers these new alerts will still vary by region.

Even in Minnesota, what might trigger an extreme cold warning in Southern Minnesota might not in Northern Minnesota.

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As a Twin Cities National Weather Service meteorologist explained to the Star Tribune, an air temperature or wind chill of -25 might trigger a cold weather alert in the Twin Cities, while -30 might be the threshold in St. Cloud. In essence, he says “It needs to be colder as you get north for an advisory, versus if you’re in the central or southern part of the state".