Lilt, an artificial intelligence company, began providing translations in late 2023. That replaced manual translations that the weather service had said were labor-intensive and not sustainable. It eventually provided them in Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, French and Samoan.
Nearly 68 million people in the U.S. speak a language other than English at home, including 42 million Spanish speakers, according to 2019 Census data.
The translations are important during extreme weather events, but general weather forecasts are also essential for people who work in tourism, transportation and energy, experts say.
The weather service’s parent agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is among the federal agencies targeted by the Trump administration for aggressive staff and budget cuts.
