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 Billings, 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 Billings (BYZ) · issued Saturday, October 24 at 6:46 AM MDT.

Messages

Near seasonable temperatures (highs in the 40s and 50s) this weekend into next week.

Unsettled conditions (20-50% precipitation chances) late Sunday into next week. Uncertainty is high for the extended forecast.

Update

Early morning satellite imagery shows drier WNW flow spreading through MT in the wake of yesterday's weather system, and a low cutting off over the southern great basin. Cloud cover exists over the east half of our cwa but expect mostly clear skies everywhere by sunrise. As temperatures fall toward 20F in the west cannot rule out localized fog early. This may include Livingston.

Cooler and unsettled weather continues for the next few days and here are a few items of note and worth monitoring. (1) Models are coming more in line showing the SW low lifting far enough north to bring some light precipitation to far southeast MT late Sunday into Monday. Boundary layer may be cold enough (w/ easterly winds) for a mix with wet snow over the highest hills, such as those around Ekalaka. At the very least it looks like we will have low clouds/fog to deal with early next week, again w/ persistent easterly flow, not only in the east but also perhaps along western foothills. (2) Next Pacific wave reaches south central MT late Monday night bringing a good chance of showers through the west into Tuesday. Steep lapse rates and colder mid levels suggest accumulating snow over favored SW-NW aspects of the Beartooth- Absaroka and Crazy mountains. Look for 2-5" of accumulation with a 20% chance of exceeding 5". (3) As the Tuesday shortwave tracks eastward it is possible that higher hills of southeast MT see some wet snow.

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