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, November 13 at 3:24 AM EST.

What has changed

No substantial changes were made to the snowfall forecast for the mountains over the next couple of days.

Made substantial edits to the Marine Discussions, including the extension of ongoing Small Craft Advisories.

Added a short fire weather discussion to touch on breezy conditions and lower RHs in the coming days. See below for details.

Messages

1) First snowfall for parts of the Alleghenies with spotty showers & brisk conditions elsewhere through Saturday.

2) Below normal temperatures and dry condtions are expected Monday and Tuesday before a warm up occurs.

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.