During the winter months, air temperatures can dip so cold that hypothermia and frost bite can impact someone in just minutes. That’s why the National Weather Service (NWS) has extreme cold alerts that they use to warn people of dangerous or even deadly cold conditions.

In years past, the NWS has used wind chill alerts to warn for cold weather, however, they have changed the messaging this year in hopes to be more clear that cold temperatures can be dangerous even without wind.

An extreme cold watch will be issued when dangerously cold air is expected, therefore stay vigilant and make sure you are prepared for when the cold air arrives.

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An extreme cold warning will be issued when cold air is imminent. This is when you should already be prepared for the dangerously cold conditions: limit time outdoors, dress in layers and cover exposed skin. When an extreme cold warning is issued, the cold conditions could lead to frostbite or hypothermia.

This segment originally appeared in today's edition of the Morning Brief newsletter. Sign up here to get weekday updates from The Weather Channel and our meteorologists.

J​ennifer Gray is a weather and climate writer for weather.com. She has been covering some of the world's biggest weather and climate stories for the last two decades.