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NEWS.md

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+# harpPoint v0.2.0
+
+This is a major update. Most of the changes are internal, but there are some 
+changes that may lead to problems with downstream scripts that are listed 
+below along with some selected new features.
+
+### Breaking changes
+
+* Default `groupings` argument changed from `"leadtime"` to `"lead_time"` for 
+consistency with changes in _{harpIO}_. Scripts that use verification functions
+with `"leadtime"`, `"validdate"` and `"fcdate"` as values to `groupings` should 
+be changed to `"lead_time"`, `"valid_dttm"` and `"fcst_dttm"` respectively. 
+
+* Verification outputs now use the column name `fcst_model` instead of `mname` 
+so that there is consistency throughout harp. 
+
+* Attributes for verification outputs have changed to include all forecast dates,
+all stations and all groupings used in the verification. Any scripts that make 
+use of these attributes should be updated to reflect the new attributes.
+
+* `scale_point_forecast()` and `scale_point_obs()` are deprecated. 
+`scale_param()` should be used instead. 
+
+* `gather_members()` and `spread_members()` are deprecated. `pivot_members()`
+should be used instead. 
+
+* `first_validdate()` and `last_validdate()` are deprecated. 
+`unique_valid_dttm()` should be used instead.
+
+* `pull_stations()` is deprecated. `unique_stations()` should be used instead.
+
+* `bootstrap_score()`, `pooled_bootstrap_score()` and `bind_bootstrap_score()` 
+are defunct. `bootstrap_verify()` and `bind_point_verif()` should be used 
+instead. 
+
+
+### Selected new features
+
+* Verification functions have gained new progress bars and are generally less 
+verbose in what they are doing, restricting messages to only progress with 
+computing scores for different verification groups. 
+
+* New verification score __hexbin__. This gives a data frame of what is 
+essentially a heat map of forecast - observation value pairs. 
+
+* New class, attributes and print method for verification function outputs. 
+
+* `jitter_fcst()` now accepts vectorized functions so should be a lot faster. 
+
+
+# harpPoint v0.0.9
+
+* This is the version that is basically unchanged since late 2021 / early 2022. 
+
+* It was officially tagged v0.0.9 in November 2023