The National Weather Service is no longer providing language translations of its products, a change that experts say could put non-English speakers at risk of missing potentially life-saving warnings about extreme weather.

The weather service has “paused” the translations because its contract with the provider has lapsed, NWS spokesperson Michael Musher said. He declined further comment.

The National Weather Service has stopped providing language translations for its products — and experts warn that the change could put non-English speakers’ lives at risk when extreme weather strikes.

The weather service “paused” the translations because its contract with Lilt, an artificial intelligence company that provided the service, lapsed, NWS spokesperson Michael Musher said. 

The federal National Weather Service (NWS) has announced it has "paused" its automated language translation service "due to a contract lapse" with translation company LILT. The firm had been translating NWS forecasts, including storm warnings, into Spanish, simplified Chinese and three other languages.

Newsweek contacted LILT for comment via email on Wednesday outside of regular office hours.

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