Area Forecast Discussions are the real forecasts, written 3 to 4 times daily by NWS meteorologists reading the models and interpreting what they mean for your area. They offer far deeper insight than any weather app, but they're written in dense meteorological shorthand. Plaincast uses Anthropic's Claude to summarize them into plain English, side by side with the annotated original.
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 El Paso, 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.
Above normal temperatures across southern New Mexico and far west Texas through the week ahead. Lowland highs will range upper 90s to 105, which will approach daily records.
Very limited thunderstorm chances in the mountains for today and Monday. Dry elsewhere.
Chances for thunderstorms will improve Thursday into next weekend.
Another multi-day break in the monsoon is underway. 18Z RAOBS place the subtropical high right in between ABQ and EPZ, with both recording 500mb heights of 5980m. Additional horrid stats from EPZ include a temperature of -4C at 500mb (in the middle of a sharp inversion, and a precipitable water of 0.84 inches.
Meanwhile, at the surface, dewpoints have mixed out into the mid-30s across much of the lowlands, including LRU, ALM, and DNA.
the high-res rapid-refresh model still holds out hope for a few isolated convective showers with maybe some thunder over the Gila or Sacramento Mountains, and radar shows a few minimal blips west of the Black Range. But coverage will be very minimal.
Temperatures should still top out around 101-103 at ELP, with similar temperatures tomorrow. Ensembles suggest we'll peak on Tuesday with a high around 104-106.
Record highs for ELP the next few days rise slowly with the forecast, but are still within range.
Sun 23 - 103 (2024) // forecast 102 Mon 24 - 102 (1993) // forecast 102 Tue 25 - 104 (2002) // forecast 104 Wed 26 - 106 (2019) // forecast 103 Thu 27 - 103 (2019) // forecast 102
This is the plain-text edition, decoded without AI so it loads anywhere. Read the whole El Paso discussion at /o/EPZ/, see what changed since the last one, or open The National Desk for where the weather is today.