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 Missoula, 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 Missoula (MSO) · issued Saturday, October 24 at 4:14 AM MDT.
Discussion
Patchy fog and low stratus the next couple of morning.
Return of active weather for much of next week.
The widespread precipitation from yesterday along with clearing skies is allowing for the development of patchy fog and low stratus across the Northern Rockies this morning. The region should anticipate fog and stratus the next couple of mornings as a weak ridge of high pressure will be over the region.
Multiple low pressure systems are expected to swing into the Pacific Northwest and the Northern Rockies starting late Monday through much of next week. These disturbances will bring periods of widespread precipitation with at times accumulating snow in the higher terrain. Temperatures throughout the period appear to remain near seasonal averages of afternoon highs in the 40s and 50s.
This is the plain-text edition, decoded without AI so it loads anywhere. Read the whole Missoula discussion at /o/MSO/, see what changed since the last one, or open The National Desk for where the weather is today.