Storm Station

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Forecast map / Forecast, each 12 hours

Chance of rain forecast map

Over Citizen station GW6636, Mississippi, where the map opens. The whole country

The chance of rain or snow in each 12 hours, day and night, for seven days: when to expect it, and how surely. How to read it.

Chance of rain on the map

What the chance of rain map shows

The chance of at least 0.01 inch of rain or melted snow in each 12 hours, day and night, for seven days. A 70% chance means rain falls at that place on seven of ten days forecast like it.

How to read it

Under 20%
Rain unlikely.
20 to 40%
A slight chance; a shower here and there.
40 to 60%
A fair chance.
60 to 80%
Rain likely.
Over 80%
Rain nearly certain.

What it is for

  • Pick the dry days of the week.
  • See a storm system’s timing across the country.
  • Read with the rain amount: a high chance of a little rain is not a storm.

How it is made

The forecast maps are drawn from the national blend of the forecast models: the models joined into one forecast and corrected against what each place has measured, on a grid 1.6 miles across, the forecast the country’s forecasters start from. Each of its main runs, four a day, is read whole, laid onto the same grid of latitude and longitude as the radar at 2.8 miles a cell, and played forward from now.

A frame every 12 hours for 7 days, played as a loop of 3 or 7 days. As data: /radar/now.json?show=fpop, the times of its frames.

Beside it

Forecast amount

Rain, 6 hours

For

How much rain will fall in each 6 hours, in inches, snow as its water: the bands of rain crossing storm by storm.

.0112 in

Open the map

Forecast total

Rain total

For

All the rain forecast from now to each frame, in inches: the week’s rain adding up, and where it builds highest.

.0112 in

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Forecast, each 12 hours

Thunder

For

The chance of a thunderstorm in each 12 hours for seven days: where storms are likely, before any radar sees them.

080%

Open the map