Vermonters Thrilled That Merriam-Webster Has Added This Term To Its Dictionary

A, um, pleasant walk through mud season  last March.
Merriam-Webster has just added the term mud season
to its dictionary. 

 The English language is always changing. New words and terms are always being added to the lexicon.

Dictionaries always try to keep up.  On Wednesday, Merriam-Webster added 370 new words to its dictionary. Among the terms added is "mud season".  

Us Vermonters are so, so familiar with that word combo, but perhaps much of the rest of the world is not. People would have to look it up.  Now, they can. 

For the record, Merriam-Webster defines "mud season" as "A time of year (such as early spring) that is characterized by excessively muddy ground." 

That defines it pretty well. Of course Merriam-Webster is a "just the facts, ma'am" kind of organization, so they omit the often colorful descriptions we use when mud season leaves our cars mired in muck and our house tracked with so much dirt we could grow an indoor garden. 

I'm happy to report that Merriam-Webster has added a few other words that are at least tangentially related to weather and climate. 

In one case, I've never heard of the term before, but I love it. 

Do this: Close your eyes and picture yourself stepping outside at dawn on a gorgeous May morning. The trees are just starting to explode with green, and the aroma of lilac, tulip, hyacinth and bleeding heart fills the air

The air also holds the sounds of a beautiful concert. All the birds are singing happily, and if you're not a curmudgeon who doesn't like being awakened early by all that chirping, the bird song fills you with joy. 

That wonderful sound has a term and it was added to Merriam-Webster this week. It's called, appropriately enough "bird chorus."  The official definition of this is, "The singing of wild birds that closely precedes and follows sunrise, especially in spring and summer."

Another weather related term added this year to Merriam-Webster has been around for decades, at least in meteorological circles. It's "atmospheric river."

Atmospheric rivers are those narrow channels of deep moisture that travel often thousands of miles over oceans and come ashore to produce heavy rain and flooding. Or at Merriam-Webster defines it: "A concentrated band of water vapor that flows through the atmosphere and that is a significant part of the global hydrologic cycle and an important source of regional precipitation."

There's one more relevant new Merriam-Webster listing. At least as it relates to this here weather/climate blog thingy. The word is "greenwash."

The definitions of this are (1): To make something such as a product, policy or practice appear to be more environmentally friendly or less environmentally damaging than it really is. (2): To mislead (someone) by means of greenwashing. greenwash noun : something (such as a claim or action) that is intended to make a product, policy, activity, etc. appear to be ore environmentally friendly or less environmentally damaging than it really is."

Since I like to make up words that make more sense than the English language, I'll have to think up some new weather related terms to propose to Merriam-Webster. 

Any ideas, anyone?

 

 

Big Changes To Weather Service Alerts Coming

No more National Weather Service "advisories" and 
"statements" in our future. Look for some TBA
plain language alerts instead. 

Friday evening,  the National Weather Service in South Burlington had where I am in St. Albans, Vermont under a winter weather advisory. 

The forecast called for a few inches of snow, some blowing snow and some pretty low wind chills.  

This wasn't a full blown big winter storm, but the weather would present some hazards. Hence what is regarded as a lower grade winter weather advisory was up. 

Time also appears to be up for such advisories. The National Weather Service home office said advisories like what I described above are confusing to the public. 

It turns out the public often confuses weather advisories with weather watches and warnings.

An advisory describes an imminent or occurring weather event that doesn't rise to the level of qualifying for a more dire warning, but can still cause difficulty or inconvenience. Examples, other than the winter weather advisory, included flood advisories for minor inundations and heat advisories for oppressive summer weather. 

A watch means a more serious storm is likely, but not yet definite. It means people under a weather watch should prepare for the bad or dangerous weather in case it develops.

A warning means a big hazard, such as a winter storm, hurricane, severe thunderstorm or tornado is imminent or happening right now. A warning means there's a threat to life and/or property. 

The National Weather Service says "The advisory term itself is misunderstood and its meaning is often conflated with that of "Watch." Such confusion can lead to a misunderstanding of forecast severity and certainty with respect to significant weather and water hazards. This, in turn, can adversely impact user preparation for (and response to) these hazards."

Special weather statements will also be a thing of the past. Those are issued when there's a short term hazard like areas of fog, heavy snow showers or strong but not severe thunderstorms. 

The National Weather Service will still of course alert us when there are problems like a few inches of snow, strong thunderstorms, freezing drizzle, dense fog and the like. 

However, the goal is to use "plain language" to communicate about these hazards. Beyond the confusion caused by advisories, emergency managers like the idea of plain language to more clearly relay messages to the public.

Exactly what that language will look like is still to be determined. The devil is in the details, ya know.

There will be webinars and plenty of opportunities for the general public to weigh in on how this plain language should be accomplished. 

We'll still have those advisories, special weather statements and such at least into 2024 while the "plain language" alerts are being worked on. 

They will have bullet points - what. where, when and impacts, but there the to be determined headlines won't involve all those confusing advisories, statements and such. 

So, stay tuned!