Today is Winter Weather Awareness Day and the National Weather Service (NWS) is announcing a change to a term that is associated with bitterly cold temperatures. 

According to NWS Warning Coordination Meteorologist Chad Hahn, the term “wind chill” will be replaced with the phrase “extreme cold.” He realizes the change is subtle, but provides more of an explanation as to why the change is being made.

“So we can emphasize that cold is cold. It doesn’t matter if you have 20 miles per hour winds, 50 miles per hour winds, or calm. If you’re at 35 (degrees) below (zero) on that ‘feels like’ temperature, which is the wind chill temperature, you’re going to be in danger of being impacted and exposed skin for a long time in those temperatures can be extremely impactful.”

Hahn notes that this adjustment is part of a bigger process to simplify safety hazards for people to better understand the dangers. He says instead of confusing people with wind chill watches, warnings and advisories, issuing “extreme cold” warnings will hopefully stress the importance of not going outside.