What is an Area Forecast Discussion (AFD)?

An Area Forecast Discussion is a detailed narrative forecast written 3-4 times daily by National Weather Service meteorologists. Unlike weather apps that show icons and numbers, AFDs explain the reasoning behind the forecast - why models disagree, what forecasters are watching, and where uncertainty exists.

How does Plaincast translate NWS forecasts?

Plaincast uses Anthropic's Claude AI to summarize each forecast section into natural, readable prose. It also annotates the original text with a 230+ term jargon glossary, converts Zulu (UTC) times to local time zones, and highlights key information for quick scanning.

Which NWS offices does Plaincast support?

Plaincast supports 68 NWS forecast offices across all US regions including Los Angeles (LOX), New York (OKX), Chicago (LOT), Houston (HGX), Phoenix (PSR), San Francisco (MTR), Miami (MFL), Seattle (SEW), Denver (BOU), and many more.

Yes, Plaincast is completely free and open source. It uses the NWS public API for forecast data and Anthropic's Claude for AI summaries. No account or API key required.

Detroit NWS Forecast in Plain English

Plaincast

What the forecast actually says — NWS Area Forecast Discussions, decoded into plain English.

Area Forecast Discussion · National Weather Service Detroit (DTX) · issued Friday, September 11 at 6:57 AM EDT.

Revised in 4 passages since the 2:51 AM discussion. See every revision.

Messages

A slight chance for a shower or thunderstorm on Saturday, otherwise a quiet weekend, accompanied by slightly above-normal temperatures.

Showers expected to return by the middle of next week.

This is the plain-text edition, decoded without AI so it loads anywhere. The full Plaincast experience — plain-English summaries beside the annotated original, with the forecast changelog — loads automatically with JavaScript, or open the interactive edition.

Data from the National Weather Service. Translated by Claude. About · For developers & agents · Subscribe: RSS feed for this office · Source on GitHub

Detroit (DTX) — the National Weather Service forecast in plain English · Plaincast

Messages