WEATHER ADVISORY: The National Weather Service will stop issuing weather forecasts in capital letters

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HAS ANNOUCED THAT IT WILL NO LONGER ISSUE WEATHER ADVISORIES USING CAPITAL LETTERS.

That’s right.

The weather service is going to stop shouting at us.

The forecasting agency announced Monday that it’s dumping its all-caps style for the more thoroughly modern look of mixed-case characters.

“People are accustomed to reading forecasts in upper-case letters and seeing mixed-case use might seem strange at first,” said NWS meteorologist Art Thomas in the statement.

“It seemed strange to me until I got used to it over the course of testing the new system, but now it seems so normal.”

The all-caps style goes back to the 1800s when forecasters sent out weather reports over teleprinters that only allowed the use of upper-case lettering.

The National Weather Service has been trying to move away from that since the 1990s when the Internet and email made the look of teletype caps look, well, like the NWS was shouting.

But it’s taken more than 20 years for old equipment to be completely phased out to accommodate the change.

The news of the switch has gone over like a lead weather balloon for some weather fans.

The change will happen on May 11 when area forecast discussions, public information statements and regional weather summaries will go out in mixed-case format.

The transition won’t affect severe weather warnings until the summer.

“However, amateur weather forecasters experiencing some angst over the more pleasant tone need not fear,” the agency said in its announcement.

“The NWS will still release some all caps messages during ‘extremely dangerous situations’ and during forecasts with ‘international implications.’”

This story was originally published April 12, 2016 at 8:47 AM with the headline "WEATHER ADVISORY: The National Weather Service will stop issuing weather forecasts in capital letters."