The National Weather Service (NWS) will no longer provide language translations, AP News reported. Experts warn that the change could potentially risk the lives of non-English speakers, as they will be left out of life-saving warnings about extreme weather. The translations have been “paused” because the weather service’s contract with the translation provider lapsed, according to NWS spokesperson Michael Musher. The artificial intelligence company, Lilt, began providing the translation service in late 2023 after it replaced manual translations that were labor-intensive. Over time, Lilt provided weather warnings in Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, French, and Samoan. The contract lapse with Lilt follows the Trump administration’s efforts to cut federal spending, including cuts within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). These have also led to high employee turnover at NWS offices. About 68 million people in the U.S. speak a non-English language at home. In fact, 2019 Census data indicates that 42 million individuals are Spanish speakers. Joseph Trujillo-Falcón, a researcher at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign who has worked with NOAA on translating weather information to the public, claims that not being able to read urgent weather alerts could be life-threatening. He said translated weather alerts saved lives during a deadly tornado outbreak in Kentucky in 2021.
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