The National Weather Service (NWS) has ceased providing language translations of its products due to a contract lapse.

The Details: The NWS paused its language translations after allowing its contract with Lilt, an artificial intelligence company providing the service, to expire. Lilt replaced manual translations by the NWS and has been translating both daily weather forecasts and emergency alerts into Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, French, and Samoan since late 2023.

For Context: Nearly 68 million people in the U.S. speak a language other than English at home, including 42 million Spanish speakers. Recently, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) laid off workers in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, leaving employee vacancies in NWS. President Donald Trump also signed an Executive Order in February declaring English as the official language of the US.

How the Media Covered It: Both CNN (Left bias) and the New York Post (Lean Right bias) included comments from researcher Joseph Trujillo-Falcón telling the story of a Spanish-speaking family who took cover during a tornado in Kentucky in 2021 in response to an emergency alert in Spanish after ignoring the first alert in English. Both outlets emphasized the potential risks of losing these translations in both life-threatening weather conditions and industries like tourism and transportation, which rely on forecasts to make business decisions. Newsweek (Center bias) added that NWS has reduced weather balloon launches as a result of DOGE cuts, though it noted that it is “unclear at this stage” whether the lapsed contract is deliberate. 

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