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 Atlanta, 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.
Scattered to numerous showers and thunderstorms are expected during the afternoon and evening today and tomorrow. A few storms may become strong to severe this afternoon, capable of producing isolated damaging wind gusts.
Temperatures will remain above seasonal norms through the weekend, with afternoon heat index values in the upper 90s to low 100s.
(Today through Saturday) Issued at 246 AM EDT Fri Sep 11 2026
Over the course of the day today, a shortwave traversing otherwise largely quasi-zonal flow at the mid-levels will approach the state from the northwest. The combination of this (and an attendant frontal boundary) and a steady stream of moist, southwesterly flow around the Bermuda High at the surface will support the development of waves of showers and thunderstorms this afternoon and evening. precipitable water are progged to surge north of 2" -- well exceeding the 90th percentile climatologically, and perhaps even daily maximums. Simulated model sounding profiles are rather saturated with unimpressive mid-level lapse rates and near-negligble shear, but ample instability lends itself to chances for isolated severe potential in especially strong water-loaded downdrafts/wet microbursts. Overall rainfall totals remain low for today (up to three-quarters of an inch), but a high precipitable water environment with chances for training/multiple rounds of heavy rainfall means at least an outside chance for localized flash flooding concerns. Highs will be in the upper 80s to lower 90s today, just a bit lower than yesterday owing to increased convective coverage for many.
Saturday will be a near-carbon copy of today with no major changes to the main contributors to the forecast expected. Scattered to numerous (and perhaps even widespread) showers and thunderstorms are expected during the afternoon, and may continue overnight tonight into Saturday morning. At least patchy fog is likely to be around during the morning, but coverage is highly dependent on lingering overnight convection (which has a tendency to provide sufficient mixing to prevent lowest visibilities). Highs during the afternoon are likely to be a tick lower for areas along and north of I-85, peaking in the mid-80s to lower 90s.
This is the plain-text edition, decoded without AI so it loads anywhere. Read the whole Atlanta discussion at /o/FFC/, 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