National Weather Service will stop screaming in all caps

[Steve Miller]

WASHINGTON (AP) — FOR MORE THAN A CENTURY, THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HAS ISSUED ITS FORECASTS IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS. But in the age of social media that's considered yelling, so next month federal meteorologists are lowering their voices and their letters — except in dire emergencies.

Weather service spokeswoman Susan Buchanan said the agency started using all capital letters in 1849 forecasts because of the telegraph. Twenty years ago, the agency tried phasing out the practice, but old equipment wouldn't recognize lower-case letters.

Starting May 11, weather service forecasts will no longer read like someone shouting in a hurricane — the agency will use both upper- and lower-case letters.

Except, Buchanan said, IN EXTREMELY DANGEROUS SITUATIONS, WHEN CAPITALIZATION WILL REIGN.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/we...screaming-weather-service-20160411-story.html

 

[Jake Orosi]

I DON'T THINK THIS WAS STRICTLY NECESSARY, BUT I DON'T SEE ANY DOWNSIDES EITHER, ESPECIALLY NOW THAT ALL-CAPS WILL SERVE A PRACTICAL EMPHASIS FUNCTION IN TEXT PRODUCTS BY DRAWING ATTENTION TO THE MOST IMPORTANT OR URGENT INFORMATION.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

I personally find reading something in all caps to be a bit difficult, myself. I would rather see lowercase. Reserve important keywords for all caps...like...SEEK SHELTER NOW and stuff like that.

 

[Randy Jennings]

Today is the day, although the switch over doesn't seem to be consistent (guess some caps lock keys still stuck down). FWD AFD from 3:33 AM CDT was in all caps, 6:44 AM CDT update was in mixed case. SPC Day 1 outlook issued at 7:52 AM CDT was still in all caps.

 

[Kirk Chestnut]

The practice is probably a carryover from the wire feed days. ALL CAPS is still used in some sectors of broadcasting: news/teleprompter copy, commercial production, video crawl, etc. although we're seeing less and less of it. We used to have an old radio mill typewriter at the station that had nothing but all caps. I think it was an Underwood.

 

[Joshua Tee]

Today is the day, although the switch over doesn't seem to be consistent (guess some caps lock keys still stuck down). FWD AFD from 3:33 AM CDT was in all caps, 6:44 AM CDT update was in mixed case. SPC Day 1 outlook issued at 7:52 AM CDT was still in all caps.

Randy,
I had to do some digging on this about a month back as this will impact my android app in some way as I do quite a bit of textual extraction and manipulation. Turns out this transition is in phases and specific dates aren't provided ( save AFD/PNS/RWS ) at least according to this:
http://www.noaa.gov/national-weather-service-will-stop-using-all-caps-its-forecasts
------ ( from notice linked to above )
Three forecast products will transition to mixed-case use on May 11, including area forecast discussions, public information statements and regional weather summaries. Severe weather warnings will transition this summer, with other forecasts and warnings transitioning to the new system through early next year.



Josh

 

[JamesCaruso]

Randy,
I had to do some digging on this about a month back as this will impact my android app in some way as I do quite a bit of textual extraction and manipulation. Turns out this transition is in phases and specific dates aren't provided ( save AFD/PNS/RWS ) at least according to this:
http://www.noaa.gov/national-weather-service-will-stop-using-all-caps-its-forecasts
------ ( from notice linked to above )
Three forecast products will transition to mixed-case use on May 11, including area forecast discussions, public information statements and regional weather summaries. Severe weather warnings will transition this summer, with other forecasts and warnings transitioning to the new system through early next year.



Josh

Yeah, I had forgotten all about this change and remembered when I saw my local AFD in lower case this morning, but also noticed that the SPC convective outlooks are still in all caps.




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