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 New York, 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.
Continued chances for showers and thunderstorms into early evening ahead of a cold frontal passage. Some thunderstorms could have strong wind gusts with a marginal risk for severe thunderstorms.
Chance of showers for both Monday and Tuesday afternoons. Isolated thunderstorm possible for Monday. Severe weather impacts are not expected.
More chances of showers and thunderstorms for Thursday and Friday. Low confidence in potential impacts at this time.
.KEY MESSAGE 1. Cold front and shortwave will provide lift this afternoon into early evening. This will combine with weak capping and sufficient MLCAPEs for isolated to scattered showers and thunderstorms until shortly after sundown. Strong to locally severe wind gusts would be the main impact. Looks like chances are limited to parts of NE NJ, the Lower Hudson Valley area, and into SW CT. Might need to extend chances for both showers and thunderstorms farther south, but will go with a dry forecast for the southern zones dry for now and monitor radar trends.
.KEY MESSAGE 2. Cold pool aloft with longwave troughing will be over the region for both Monday and Tuesday. Both afternoons could see instability showers for parts of the Lower Hudson Valley and Southern Connecticut, and with slightly more storm energy and perhaps slightly steeper lapse rates, there could be an isolated rumble of thunder for Monday. the blend-of-models forecast kept all areas dry both days, but have gone with slight chance chance of rain for both afternoons. Severe wx not expected, but a strong gust could be possible on Monday.
.KEY MESSAGE 3. Global models show a weak wave of low pressure approaching from our SW on Thursday and passing nearby or through the forecast area during Friday. Too early to have high confidence in potential impacts, but will need to keep an eye on trends for severe wx and flooding. At least isolated thunder would be around based on the track of storm, and at least minor flooding would be possible with an increase of precipitable water. Time frame for greatest chance of impacts would be Thursday afternoon through Friday morning.
This is the plain-text edition, decoded without AI so it loads anywhere. Read the whole New York discussion at /o/OKX/, see what changed since the last one, or open The National Desk for where the weather is today.