Changes in how we communicate risks from cold weather go into effect October 1st

• Cold weather alert criteria is changing on October 1st to better communicate the risks of dangerous cold this winter.
• Instead of focusing on academic terminology like wind chill, alerts will now be focused on the severity of cold that you will feel.
• Hard freeze warnings will be consolidated into freeze warnings.

BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
New changes are coming to the way we communicate the risk of cold weather to you this winter. I'm First To Know Meteorologist Riley Winch in the College Town neighborhood, where wind chill alerts are no more.

"Cold is cold basically, so whether the wind is blowing or it's just cold without the wind, it's all going to be in one product."

And that's the main message the National Weather Service is trying to convey.

What we now identify as wind chill watches and warnings will now be known as extreme cold watches and warnings. This accounts for dangerously cold temperatures in our local area.

Wind chill advisories will be renamed to cold weather advisories to indicate unseasonably cold temperatures.

While the term wind chill specifically focuses on the air temperature feeling much colder to the skin due to wind's effect on increasing heat loss from the human body, sometimes, it's just flat out cold without the wind. This criteria instead focuses on how cold the air will feel to us rather than the meteorological academics.

The specific criteria for the cold weather advisory varies on what part of our local area you are in.

"North of the Florida border it's going to be 20 degrees, wind chill or just regular temperature, and in Florida 25."

Extreme cold alerts will be issued based on the likelihood of temperatures that feel colder than 10 degrees in South Georgia and 15 degrees in North Florida.

At the National Weather Service in the College Town neighborhood, I'm Meteorologist Riley Winch, ABC 27.