The National Weather Service is getting rid of \u201cwind chill\u201d in its winter weather warnings, which sounds like good news for windy Wyoming. But it\u2019s not going away, it\u2019s just renaming the index as \u201cextreme cold.\u201d<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
By Andrew Rossi<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s a chilling change in the wind for the upcoming 2024-2025 winter season. Wyomingites won\u2019t see wind chill watches or warnings in their morning forecasts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead, everything is going to be \u201cextreme.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The National Weather Service has announced a change to its winter weather vernacular. Watches and warnings for \u201cwind chill\u201d will be replaced by \u201cextreme cold\u201d to give a broader preview of what can be expected outside during winter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That doesn\u2019t mean wind chills won\u2019t be posted when they happen \u2014 and they happen a lot in the Cowboy State. Extremely low wind chills are still a potent threat, but there\u2019s more to extreme cold than the wind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe main reason for the change is just to simplify things,\u201d said meteorologist Josh Sandstrom with the NWS Cheyenne office. \u201cWe can get dangerously cold temperatures without much wind and in combination with wind. This puts both things into one headline and makes it easier for everyone to understand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sandstrom explained that wind chill is used to \u201cfind out how (winter weather) feels against your skin.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n It reflects how much the actual temperature is affected by wind speed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wyoming is notorious for its dangerously cold wind chills, which dipped as low as minus 50 degrees last winter. And they\u2019re not going anywhere, as Sandstrom said wind chills will still be published and included in daily and weekly forecasts. The only thing that\u2019s changing is the main terminology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEssentially, we\u2019re still using the same criteria for wind chill,\u201d he said. \u201cIf it\u2019s minus 25 degrees outside, and the wind chill brings that down to minus 45, the Extreme Cold Warning will be issued for that minus 45.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cowboy State Daily meteorologist Don Day generally supports the change from wind chill to extreme cold. He believes it could provide a better perspective on \u201cthe whole picture\u201d of subzero temperatures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think it gives people a better idea of the severity of a cold snap, not just when it comes to wind, but temperature as well,\u201d he said. \u201cA wind chill warning doesn’t talk about what the temperature will or could feel like. It doesn’t explain the severity of the cold snap.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n A winter day in Wyoming can be completely calm and still be dangerously cold. Day believes an extreme cold warning could better communicate climate conditions to anyone outside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI feel that the new way of wording will advise people of the severity of the cold better than just using a wind chill,\u201d he said. \u201cDuring wind chill advisories and warnings, most people pick up on the wind chill, and for good reason, but that doesn’t necessarily include how long a cold snap could be.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The NWS expands its extreme weather vocabulary when necessary. One recent addition was “snow squall warnings<\/u><\/a>,<\/a>” which are for small, intense snow and windstorms that can form and disperse within an hour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Supercells” are the summer equivalent of snow squalls<\/u><\/a>.<\/a> Several supercells were reported this summer, including furious hailstorms and funnel clouds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Day only has one criticism of Extreme Cold Warnings and Watches. But it\u2019s business, not personal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe NWS seems to love the word \u2018extreme\u2019 these days,\u201d he said. \u201cI’m not a fan of the word \u2018extreme,\u2019 but that’s just me. I think the new wording is ultimately better.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meteorologist Tim Trudell with NWS Cheyenne explained that the thresholds for Extreme Cold Watches and Warnings won\u2019t be the same across Wyoming. Northern and southern Wyoming will have different thresholds at different temperatures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe threshold for an Extreme Cold Watch will be minus 20 degrees across Wyoming,\u201d he said. \u201cAfter that, it gets a little trickier.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trudell explained that the threshold for an Extreme Cold Warning for southern Wyoming, from the Interstate 80- corridor to Douglas, Casper and Riverton, is minus 30 degrees. Above that line, the threshold for northern Wyoming will be minus 40 degrees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trudell said several NWS agencies across the western United States collaborated to find the best temperature thresholds for Extreme Cold Watches and Warnings. Those thresholds should be fairly similar, state to state and region to region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt won\u2019t be exactly the same everywhere, but it should be pretty close,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Regardless of what wording is in front of the watches and warnings, Day said Wyomingites should expect to see \u201cextreme cold\u201d frequently on their winter forecasts. His long-range forecast for the 2024-2025 winter season anticipates a colder, snowier winter for the Cowboy State<\/u><\/a>.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think we\u2019ll see a lot of extreme cold watches and warnings this winter,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd even though they’re taking the words \u2018wind chill\u2019 out of the headline, the wind chill is still part of the equation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Day expects it to be disproportionally snowier in northern Wyoming than southern Wyoming, given the prevailing weather patterns and strengthening La Ni\u00f1a, which will dominate the weather this winter. But it should be colder everywhere, which means more chances for extremely cold days, with or without the wind chill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFrom a Wyoming perspective, we usually get severe cold with a period of extreme wind chill,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ll have a storm come in and get bitterly cold with wind. Then you\u2019ll see the wind die down, but you still have two or three really cold days after that. I think that’s one of the reasons why they’re doing this. It\u2019s not necessarily just the wind, but the prolonged and severe cold as well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Seems like some climate nonsense as the old system was fine, but you have to scare the masses with weather. https:\/\/cowboystatedaily.com\/2024\/10\/08\/no-more-wind-chill-during-wyomings-windy-winters-now-its-extreme-cold\/ The National Weather Service is getting rid of \u201cwind chill\u201d in its winter weather warnings, which sounds like good news for windy Wyoming. But it\u2019s not going away, it\u2019s just renaming the index as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weather","category-wyoming"],"blocksy_meta":[],"featured_image_src":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Jason","author_link":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/author\/jturning\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8768"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8768\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8770,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8768\/revisions\/8770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/cowboystatedaily.imgix.net\/Super-cold-sign-1-1.9.24.jpg?ixlib=js-3.8.0&q=75&auto=format%2Ccompress\")
Chilling Results<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Extremely Better?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"No](\"https:\/\/cowboystatedaily.imgix.net\/No-more-wind-chill-10.8.24.jpg?ixlib=js-3.8.0&q=75&auto=format%2Ccompress\")
The Thresholds<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Expect Extremes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/image-5-1024x577.png\")
<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"