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 Los Angeles, 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 Los Angeles (LOX) · issued Saturday, October 24 at 3:42 AM PDT.

Synopsis

Weak northeast winds are expected to develop this weekend, bringing drier conditions and warmer temperatures to the region that will persist through the first half of next week. Cooler conditions to follow with a growing potential for a significant storm system towards the end of next week.

Short Term

Fairly benign stretch of weather ahead in the short-term. A clearing and drying trend will continue this weekend as gradients shift to weakly offshore. Expect the strongest northeast flow to occur today. These weak offshore winds will most likely peak below Advisory levels, with gusts of 20 to 40 mph common in the wind prone mountains and valleys. Temperatures will rise 8 to 15 degrees today compared to the last couple of days. Highs in the 70s to lower 80s are expected, with an additional few degrees of warming on Sunday. After that, little change in temperatures expected through at least Monday.

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