National Weather Service Raw Text Product

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NOUS44 KSHV 241448
PNSSHV
ARZ050-051-059>061-070>073-LAZ001>006-010>014-017>022-OKZ077-
TXZ096-097-108>112-124>126-136>138-149>153-165>167-250300-

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SHREVEPORT LA
948 AM CDT Thu Oct 24 2024

...Public Information Statement...

...Text-Based Hazardous Weather Outlook To Be Replaced by 
Graphical Hazardous Weather Outlook on December 1 2024...

TO: NOAA Weather Radio Listeners and other NWS Partners, Users, 
and Employees

FROM: Chris Nuttall, Warning Coordination Meteorologist, National
Weather Service Shreveport LA and Brad Bryant, Meteorologist-in- 
Charge, National Weather Service Shreveport LA

SUBJECT: Hazardous Weather Outlook (HWO) product to be 
discontinued and replaced by the Graphical Hazardous Weather 
Outlook (gHWO) product

Effective December 1, 2024, the National Weather Service (NWS) 
office in Shreveport, LA, (SHV) will discontinue the Hazardous 
Weather Outlook (HWO) product and will replace it with a Graphical
Hazardous Weather Outlook (gHWO).

Currently, the HWO provides a plain language overview of any 
hazardous weather expected within the NWS SHV County Warning Area 
(CWA) during the next seven days. The HWO is divided into three 
sections: Day 1, usually titled “Today and Tonight,” Days 2 
through 7, and the Spotter Information Statement. The HWO is 
issued at 6 AM local time and updated as needed around midday. 
Much of the information in the HWO is being duplicated within 
other NWS graphical and text products, which are available from 
NWS websites and social media. In particular, the Area Forecast 
Discussion (AFD) has been a source of hazard information for 
years. Therefore, the NWS SHV office has determined that it makes 
sense to consolidate these products.

NWS partner and user feedback has indicated that the Spotter 
Information Statement is the most used section of the HWO, 
primarily because some local organizations use software to parse 
the text for their situational awareness. When the text-based HWO 
is discontinued, the Spotter Information Statement will be 
included as a new section within the AFD. This should allow those 
organizations to maintain situational awareness with minimal 
changes.

Over the last few years, the NWS has developed a new gHWO product
to replace the HWO. The gHWO provides a map-based display rather 
than a plain language text product of the expected hazardous 
weather within the next seven days. The gHWO is color-coded based 
on the expected threat levels. The gHWO is also automatically 
updated anytime the NWS forecast is updated. In addition, the 
graphics allow NWS partners, users, and the public to view them 
more easily on computers and mobile devices. Thus, the increased 
timeliness, map-based precision, and easier interpretation of the 
gHWO make it an improvement of the legacy HWO text product. The 
gHWO can be found on the NWS SHV website at 
https://www.weather.gov/erh/ghwo?wfo=shv

If you have questions or concerns about the discontinuation of 
the Hazardous Weather Outlook product, please contact:

Chris Nuttall
Warning Coordination Meteorologist
National Weather Service, Shreveport, LA
318-631-3669, ext. 223
chris.nuttall@noaa.gov

Brad Bryant
Meteorologist-in-Charge
National Weather Service, Shreveport, LA
318-631-3669, ext. 222
brad.bryant@noaa.gov

$$

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