Public Information Statement
Issued by NWS National HQ
Issued by NWS National HQ
010 NOUS41 KWBC 051815 PNSWSH Service Change Notice 24-88 National Weather Service Headquarters Silver Spring MD 215 PM EDT Thu Sep 5 2024 To: Subscribers: -NOAA Weather Wire Service -Emergency Managers Weather Information Network -NOAAPort Other NWS Partners, Users and Employees From: Stephen Bieda III, Chief Severe, Fire, Public, and Winter Weather Services Branch Subject: Renaming of Excessive Heat Watch and Warning to Extreme Heat Watch and Warning: Effective March 4, 2025 On or about March 4, 2025, the NWS will implement the following changes to Public Program Text Products: - Transition the following text products: * Excessive Heat Watch to Extreme Heat Watch * Excessive Heat Warning to Extreme Heat Warning Extreme Heat Watch/Warning are contained in the Non- Precipitation Weather Message (NPW). The Valid Time Event Code (VTEC) phenomena code EH for Excessive Heat Watch and Warning will be decommissioned and will be replaced by the Extreme Heat Watch and Warning VTEC phenomena code XH.VTEC enables weather providers and vendors to automate and tailor the product stream delivered to their clients. These changes will result in the following changes to NWS Warning, Watch, and Advisory maps for the aforementioned products: Product Name VTEC Product Color ------------------------------------------------ Extreme Heat Warning XH.W Mediumvioletred Extreme Heat Watch XH.A Maroon For more information on all NWS Warning, Watch, Advisory priorities and colors, please see https://www.weather.gov/help- map The reformatting changes are based on a public survey referenced in the notice below: https://www.weather.gov/media/notification/pdfs/pns18- 11npw_haz_simp.pdf The results indicated that a majority of users surveyed favored the changes as proposed. A listing of the changes, along with examples, are contained in the Product Description Document (PDD) for Extreme Heat below: https://nsdesk.servicenowservices.com/api/g_noa/nwspc/res2/2af4d 8b51bf6a110b13387bae54bcb94 Presentations and additional information on these upcoming proposed changes and plans for the NWS Hazard Simplification (Haz Simp) Project may be accessed at the Haz Simp Website: https://www.weather.gov/hazardsimplification For more information, please email: hazsimp@noaa.gov National Service Change Notices are online at: https://www.weather.gov/notification