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Heat Builds in the West; Severe Thunderstorms and Heavy Rain in the Upper Midwest and Mid-Mississippi Valley; Extremely Critical Fire Weather in the Northwest on Saturday

A heat wave over the Southwest will intensify this week, peaking and expanding into the Intermountain West and northern High Plains this weekend. Severe thunderstorms and heavy rainfall are expected over parts of the Upper Midwest to mid-Mississippi Valley today. Critical to extremely critical fire weather conditions from the Northwest and the northern Great Basin on Saturday and Sunday. Read More >

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Welcome to the National Weather Service’s Hazards Simplification Initiative!

The Hazard Simplification (Haz Simp) initiative is leveraging user engagement research to explore and implement advancements in our national Watch, Warning, and Advisory alerting system. This iterative and flexible approach allows the National Weather Service (NWS) to continually engage with its partners and stakeholders to ensure the alert products we issue reflect current and future needs.

From consolidating the number of individual alerts to creating new visuals to utilizing plain language, the NWS is always looking for new and more effective ways to communicate weather impacts to partners and the public!