National Weather Service revamps Heat Watch and Heat Warning products

To assist with people’s understanding of heat forecasts ahead of the summer season, NOAA’s National Weather Service (NWS) is simplifying its Heat Watches and Heat Warnings. These changes come as the contiguous U.S. had its hottest year on record last year as heatwaves are becoming more frequent.

Source: NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information

Hazard simplification for heat messaging

NWS is renaming its Heat Watch and Heat Warning products to improve messaging. On March 4, 2025, the NWS will implement the following changes: 

Excessive Heat Watches will be renamed to Extreme Heat Watches.

Excessive Heat Warnings will be renamed to Extreme Heat Warnings.

This effort is part of the Hazard Simplification Project, which integrates years of public and partner engagements and social science research to improve and evolve our alerting system. Renaming these Watch and Warning products also enables clear and timely decision support.

NWS has taken similar steps for cold weather, recently consolidating and renaming cold weather products. An official Service Change Notification was released on September 5, 2024 to implement these changes at the beginning of March 2025.

To help the nation prepare for the summer heat, see our recently updated Weather Safety for All Hazards page for tips and resources.

Resources: 

Heat Hazard Simplification - Fact Sheet

Media Contact: Michael Musher, NWS Public Affairs, michael.musher@noaa.gov