Plaincast
What the forecast actually says — NWS Area Forecast Discussions, decoded into plain English.
Plaincast decodes the National Weather Service's Area Forecast Discussion — the real forecast, written 3 to 4 times a day by the meteorologist on shift — into plain English. The discussion is where a forecaster explains their reasoning: which models disagree, what they are watching, and how confident they are. Below is the current edition for Des Moines, with its shorthand expanded. The full experience — an AI plain-English summary beside the annotated original — loads with JavaScript, and every one of the 68 forecast offices has its own edition.
Cooler weather continues through the weekend, with highs in the upper 30s to 40s and lows in the upper teens to 20s, while remaining dry.
Gradual warming with dry conditions are expected through the first half of the upcoming work week through the 50s, followed with returning chances for precipitation late Wednesday or Thursday.
The region continues to be situated under northerly flow aloft as troughing sticks around over eastern CONUS. Northerly surface winds have ushered in cold air allowing for temperatures to drop. Lows Friday morning will cool down to the low 20s in the north to mid 20s in the south. On Friday, the upper level trough begins to push off the east coast allowing for a ridge to settle over much of central CONUS. At the same time, surface Canadian high pressure will begin to descend into the Upper Midwest allowing for clearing skies, drier conditions, calm winds, and cooler temperatures to stick around for the weekend. Friday temperatures will be a tad cooler than Thursdays with highs in the low 40s.
As we go into the weekend, we can expect more of the same. Clear skies under high pressure will allow for nights with excellent radiational cooling. Chilly morning temperatures on both Saturday and Sunday can be expected. Lows will generally be in the upper teens in the northern portions of the state with the southern half seeing low 20s. Highs this weekend will continue to stick around the mid 40s.
This is the plain-text edition, decoded without AI so it loads anywhere. Read the whole Des Moines discussion at /o/DMX/, see what changed since the last one, or open The National Desk for where the weather is today.
Data from the National Weather Service. Translated by Claude. About · For developers & agents · Subscribe: RSS feed for this office · Source on GitHub