weather shorthand

There was a time (probably right before I passed my Instrumenr written) when
I was pretty good at being able to read the shorthand used for weather
conditions, FA's, and the like. There was also a time when using shorthand
made sense - days of slow teletypes, limited memory, etc.

But does it still make sense? Would it not make more sense, and possibly
save some lives, if ALL weather was made available in plain English. So I
would not have to guess at the abbreviations, and hope that I had gotten it
right?

There is a certain amount of 'IFR-macho' to being able to interpret this
stuff, but is it time for a change?