Experts fear the lack of foreign-language warnings could leave some of the 68 million non English-speaking people in the U.S. in danger.
The National Weather Service has made a decision to discontinue offering language translations of its products, a move that has raised concerns among experts who believe it could potentially endanger non-English speakers by preventing them from receiving critical warnings about severe weather events.
This change was initiated as the weather service’s contract with the translation provider has come to an end, according to NWS spokesperson Michael Musher, who chose not to provide additional details on the matter.
Lilt, an artificial intelligence company, had taken over the task of providing translations towards the end of 2023, replacing the manual translation process that was deemed to be both labor-intensive and unsustainable by the weather service. Initially, Lilt offered translations in languages such as Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, French, and Samoan. The expiration of the contract coincides with efforts by President Donald Trump’s administration to reduce expenditures within federal agencies, leading to budget cuts within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which in turn has resulted in significant staff shortages at NWS offices.
The first year of the contract cost about $750,000, and the full contract would have been for about $5.5 million over five years if it had continued.
NOAA referred questions about the contract to a message on its website announcing the contract had lapsed. Lilt did not respond to requests for comment.
Nearly 68 million people in the U.S. speak a language other than English at home, including 42 million Spanish speakers, according to 2019 Census data.
Not being able to read urgent weather alerts could be a matter of life or death, said Joseph Trujillo-Falcón, a researcher at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign who has worked with NOAA researching how to translate weather and climate information to the public, including the use of artificial intelligence.
He said translated weather alerts saved lives during a deadly tornado outbreak in Kentucky in 2021. A Spanish-speaking family interviewed afterward said they got a tornado alert on their cellphone in English but ignored it because they didn’t understand it, he said. When the same alert came in Spanish, they quickly sought shelter, he said.
“It saved their life,” said Trujillo-Falcón.
Trujillo-Falcón said weather alerts used to be translated by forecasters that spoke more than one language, a task that could be “completely overwhelming” on top of their forecasting duties.
The translations are important for more than extreme weather events, said Andrew Kruczkiewicz, a senior researcher at the Columbia Climate School at Columbia University. General weather forecasts are essential for a number of sectors including tourism, transportation and energy. Families and businesses can make more informed decisions when they can get weather information that often includes actions that should be taken based on the forecast.
Norma Mendoza-Denton, a professor of anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles, said there are many people in the U.S. that function with limited English relevant to their daily routines. For example, a shopkeeper might be able to have short conversations with customers, but might not have the same understanding when it comes to reading weather or climate terminologies.
“If they don’t have access to that National Weather Service information in the different languages, that could be the difference between life and death for somebody,” said Mendoza-Denton.
