Winter Weather Awareness: Are you ready?
This week is winter weather awareness week and we’re starting off with winter weather preparedness.
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Winter will be here before you know it and the time to start preparing is now.
This week is winter weather awareness week and we’re starting off with winter weather preparedness.
The National Weather Service uses many tools to alert the public on inclement weather during the winter season.
For one, the NWS works with the Climate Prediction Center, which has just released an update for the 2026-2027 winter weather outlook on Oct. 15. It explains a high probability of warmer than normal temperatures and wetter than normal conditions from December through February.
The National Weather Service also issues Hazardous Weather Outlooks every three to seven days ahead of the potential for hazardous weather.
Winter storm watches are usually up to 48 hours before the potential of hazardous weather.
Winter weather warnings and Winter weather advisories are usually up to 36 hours before hazardous weather.
The National Weather Service has simplified its verbiage with snow squall warnings. It even utilized Impact-based Warning (IBW) tags in snow squall warnings. Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEAs) will be limited to only those high impact snow squall warnings with the Snow Squall Impact tag of "Significant."
This improves the public response to the alert by providing easier and readable information and issuing WEA alerts only for snow squall events that pose a substantial threat to safe travel.
Otherwise, winter can bring anything from nor’easters to clippers to blizzards and even flooding.
After an active 2025-2026 winter season with an El Nino pattern, this year’s El Niño is forecasted is to be a stronger super El Niño, which could bring stronger storms and bigger extremes.
Be prepared this winter before hazardous weather strikes by sticking with your News 12 team of meteorologists.
Stick around for Day 2 of Winter Weather Awareness Week as we break down what is heavy snow, snow squalls, coastal storms and blizzards.
