Lives at risk without translated storm and fire alerts, experts warn

The termination of a contract to translate National Weather Service bulletins and other products into Spanish, Mandarin, Vietnamese, French and Samoan could put people at risk during extreme weather events, language and weather experts warn.

Since 2023, the Weather Service has provided translated forecasts and other information that were prepared under a contract with Lilt, a platform powered by artificial intelligence. The contract has been allowed to lapse, raising concerns that millions of people may not get timely weather alerts and evacuation orders that can save lives in the event of wildfires, hurricanes, tornadoes and floods.

More than 25 million U.S. residents have limited English proficiency, and many live in areas that are vulnerable to natural disasters, said Maria Akrabova, Ph.D., associate professor of Spanish and chair of the Department of World Languages at Metropolitan State University of Denver.

Akrabova cited examples, including hurricanes Katrina and Harvey and major wildfires in California and Colorado, in which residents with limited English proficiency were unaware of evacuation orders and emergency updates because alerts were issued only in English.

“Imagine receiving an evacuation order but it is in a language you don’t understand,” Akrabova said. “The absence of multilingual communication from the National Weather Service can lead to confusion, delayed responses and, in worst cases, preventable harm.”

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Weather Service began issuing manually translated Spanish-language bulletins in the early 1990s. The move to using an AI-powered large language model for translations was touted as a way to be more accurate, efficient and equitable.

Erin Roberson teaches a course on Global Climate Change as an affiliate instructor in the MSU Denver Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. Roberson worked as a meteorologist in the central Illinois forecast office of the National Weather Service from April 2020 until July 2021.

Local offices, which operate 24/7, produce public-facing forecasts, including specialized messaging for aviation and marine navigation as well as briefings for local and state emergency-management agencies, she said. Meanwhile, significant data management is required to create and maintain good forecast models. “There’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes to just maintain data and make sure data is available to the public,” Roberson said.

The local offices also tailor their communications for the regions they serve, with agriculture being a focus in Illinois and mountain weather a primary concern for much of Colorado, Roberson said.

During her tenure at the NWS, Roberson said, translation duties tended to fall to somebody on the staff who was bilingual, adding to their workload. “Because it was manually done, it would take at least an hour or more for these products to be translated and then put out to the public,” she said.

The Weather Service introduced the Lilt translation service around the time Roberson left. Over a couple of years, meteorologists worked with the company to “train” the AI to translate weather-related text into Spanish and simplified Mandarin (the other languages were added later).

“The workload for the forecasters decreased significantly, from an hour to about 10 minutes per product — a pretty significant decrease,” she said. The Weather Service released the translated weather products through a website that allowed users to sign up for alerts in their own language that would be delivered via email or text.

“That was a great service to have,” Roberson said. “This shouldn’t be reserved for those who only speak English, because it’s critical information that we need to keep safe every day. People can’t keep safe without having this information at hand.”

Now that the AI contract has lapsed, Roberson predicted local weather offices would resume translating bulletins manually.

“I don’t think people will completely abandon the effort,” she said. “They were doing it beforehand, and they will continue to after this, but it’s not going to be as simplified and streamlined as it was with the translation model.

“It’s going to take longer. It’s going to increase the workload for people on staff, and since the Weather Service has already been critically understaffed, it’s going to increase stress for workers who are already dedicating their lives to the mission of keeping us safe.”

Learn about Meteorology programs at MSU Denver.