Plaincast — the National Weather Service forecast, 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 Washington DC, 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.

Area Forecast Discussion · National Weather Service Washington DC (LWX) · issued Friday, September 11 at 9:04 AM EDT.

What has changed

Heavier showers over the DC Metro have now pushed east. Additional showers continue through early afternoon, though mostly from DC northward. A few thunderstorms possible in Central VA late this afternoon.

Messages

1) Storm chances linger through at least Saturday, with a possibly drier finish to the weekend.

2) Seasonably warm ahead of a mid-week cold front.

This is the plain-text edition, decoded without AI so it loads anywhere. Read the whole Washington DC discussion at /o/LWX/, see what changed since the last one, or open The National Desk for where the weather is today.