"Please pay us."

That was the message the a National Weather Service office based in Anchorage, Alaska, secretly embedded in an official public forecast Friday, according to the Washington Post's "Capital Weather Gang."

The first letter in each of the eleven lines spells out the encoded message:

The Anchorage National Weather Service office embedded a secret message in their weather forecast Friday. (Image source: Captal Weather Gang / NWS)

However, as the Capital Weather Gang notes, an alternative version was also published providing the same information.

The NWS reportedly exempted 3,935 employees from the shutdown so they can continue issuing important weather alerts and warnings, but is unsure how they will pay them.

“There’s no money to pay them,” Dan Sobien, president of the National Weather Service Employees Organization, told Popular Science. “Nobody knows when anyone’s going to get paid.”

Visitors to the NWS are, thus, greeted with this message:

Visitors to the National Weather Service's website are greeted with this message, following the shutdown of the federal government. (Image source: NWS)

At the time of publication, the stealthy message was still posted on the official website. A spokesperson was not immediately available for comment to TheBlaze Saturday morning.

(H/T: Capital Weather Gang)

Front page image courtesy of Shutterstock.com

Follow Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) on Twitter

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