Up through the 2007-08 winter season, NOAA's National Weather Service (NWS) policy specified a large suite of event-specific advisories and warnings related to winter weather hazards. The rationale for providing these products was based upon a higher level of available product flexibility afforded by implementation of the Valid Time Event Code, and also on results from a Public Services Customer Satisfaction Survey conducted in 2005.

However, recent internal and external feedback strongly suggested NWS should consider revisiting this topic and implement a simplified approach for the following four reasons. First, feedback from the media and NWS Weather Forecast Offices (WFO's) suggests it is difficult to describe and distinguish among the many products associated with complex winter events. Secondly, excessive time is dedicated to (and confusion results from) canceling and re-issuing products with little difference in impacts. Third, during significant winter events (including numerous severe weather events), the Watch Warning Advisory map on the NWS Home Page becomes too cluttered to clearly interpret. Fourth, the large number of available products results in occasional inconsistencies among adjoining WFOs.

User feedback on the proposal to reduce the number of winter weather advisory and warning products was overwhelmingly positive (85%) with over 100 comments received. A Service Change Notice was disseminated on May 12, 2008 notifying users of the upcoming change to be implemented on September 9, 2008. Associated NWS policy has been updated and distance learning training has been made available to forecasters in support of this significant change in policy.