NWS Question

[Mike M]

Does anyone remember how the NWS would post bulletins on their text-based forecasts that would include information mentioning that record highs or lows are possible, or how high or low the heat indices or wind chills would be? This type of data would appear on the XL and IntelliStar's weather bulletin and I found it quite useful. They stopped doing this around 2004 or so and I'm clueless as to why they stopped that. Anyone remember this?

[phw115wvwx]

I remember seeing these wordings in the NWS forecasts.  The mentioning of possible record highs or lows now shows up in the area forecast discussion instead of the text forecasts.  I suspect that the wording of the wind chill and heat index values was taken out to prevent confusion with the actual high and low temperature forecasts.

[tuez13]

As far as I know, the NWS just moved the information to their climatology page in a separate post instead of including it with the zone forecast.  For instance, my local office's daily high/low information is here while our zone forecast is located here.  Probably not really the answer you were hoping for, but perhaps something close to it!

[Jonathan]

I remember seeing these wordings in the NWS forecasts.  The mentioning of possible record highs or lows now shows up in the area forecast discussion instead of the text forecasts.  I suspect that the wording of the wind chill and heat index values was taken out to prevent confusion with the actual high and low temperature forecasts.

They still do the "Heat index values could reach 100 to 105 degrees" and "Wind chill values may fall to minus 5 to minus 10 degrees" or something similar here. I remember seeing both last year.

[toxictwister00]

I remember seeing these wordings in the NWS forecasts.  The mentioning of possible record highs or lows now shows up in the area forecast discussion instead of the text forecasts.  I suspect that the wording of the wind chill and heat index values was taken out to prevent confusion with the actual high and low temperature forecasts.

They still do the "Heat index values could reach 100 to 105 degrees" and "Wind chill values may fall to minus 5 to minus 10 degrees" or something similar here. I remember seeing both last year.

Yeah, I've seen them show the wind chill values phrase written into the text forecast for my area back in January this year.

[Eric]

I think it depends on a couple of things.

First, the local forecast no longer comes from the NWS, but from TWC's own forecasters.  Therefore, even if the information were included in the NWS zone forecast, it likely wouldn't be included in the local forecast unless TWC's forecasters wrote it in themselves for broadcast.

Second, this sounds like information that probably would have been included in the WeatherStar 4000's Local Update page, but that was discontinued ages ago.

Reports of record temperatures are still reported in the local forecast, though.  I saw such a report for a record high temperature a couple of days ago on the Intellistar.

[phw115wvwx]

Thanks, Tavores and Jonathan.  I wasn't seeing those wind chill and heat index phrases in the NWS forecasts lately, so they must be shown in more extreme instances such as only when a wind chill/heat index advisory or warning is in effect.

[Mike M]

First, the local forecast no longer comes from the NWS, but from TWC's own forecasters.  Therefore, even if the information were included in the NWS zone forecast, it likely wouldn't be included in the local forecast unless TWC's forecasters wrote it in themselves for broadcast.

Yes, but the bulletins seen on the NWS zone forecasts are still seen on the IntelliStar/XL weather bulletin and on the 4000/Junior's 36 hour forecast.

I remember in 2002 my XL weather bulletin said something like "Heat Indecies around 105 today" and in 2004 my intellstar said "Near record low temperatures tonight."

[Mike M]

Here's what I got from my office's Meteorologist in Charge:

Thanks for the quick reply.  There was a policy change back in the 2004
timeframe that introduced much more structure into what could (and could
not) be used as a headline.  This change was driven by customer feedback
that providing a standardized set of headlines would allow for better
automated handling of the products.   We lost some flexibility as a
result of that change, but improved the ability of our private sector
partners to always be able to process and distribute our
watch/warning/advisory products.