Messages
Temperatures near to a little below normal for the next several days.
Mostly dry through the weekend, then chances for rain and snow Monday through Wednesday.
Plaincast — the National Weather Service forecast, decoded into plain English
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 Bismarck, 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.
Update
Skies have cleared across most of the forecast area, except for parts of the south central, including the James River Valley. Winds have also been steadily diminishing this morning, though localized gusty conditions remain mainly in parts of north central North Dakota. With the overall downward trend expected to continue through the remainder of this morning, allowed the Wind Advisory to expire on time.
UPDATE Issued at 606 AM CDT Sat Oct 24 2026
Cold front has made it through North Dakota. There is enough moisture and elevated instability just behind the front to produce some showers over the James River Valley. There have even been a few lightning strikes. Didn't add any thunder but did throw in a slight chance of showers through 15 UTC for the far south central into the James River valley. Winds are still gusting into the 35 to 40 mph range across the area, with an occasional gust over 40 mph. No changes to the current wind advisory. Updated text products will be transmitted shortly.
This is the plain-text edition, decoded without AI so it loads anywhere. Read the whole Bismarck discussion at /o/BIS/, 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