Forecast, hour by hour
Gusts
For
The strongest gusts ahead, in miles an hour: the brief bursts that bring down limbs and power lines.
075 mph
Forecast map / Forecast, hour by hour
Forecast wind map
Over CAVE CREEK BLW COTTONWOOD CR NEAR CAVE CREEK, Arizona, where the map opens. The whole country
The wind ahead, in miles an hour, with lines that flow the way it blows: calm, breezy, or strong enough to harm. How to read it.
The rings are the storms the radars detect, the larger ring a severe one; each line runs to where its storm will be in an hour if it keeps its present speed and heading. Rotation and hail are what the radars detect and the analysis measures, not warnings: the official watches and warnings in force are drawn on the map in their own colours and set out in full under Alerts.
What the wind map shows
The wind ahead, 33 ft above the ground, in miles an hour, with lines that flow the way it blows and as fast. Strong wind turns the map amber and red; the lines show where it comes from and where it goes.
How to read it
- Under 10 mph
- Light wind.
- 10 to 20 mph
- Breezy.
- 20 to 30 mph
- Windy.
- 30 to 40 mph
- Strong wind; hard to drive a high truck.
- Over 40 mph
- Damaging wind, what a high wind warning names.
What it is for
- Plan a drive, a flight or a day on the water around the wind.
- See where dry wind spreads fire.
- Watch the wind turn as a front passes.
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 3 hours to 3 days, then every 6 hours to 7 days, played from now as a loop of 1 to 7 days. As data: /radar/now.json?show=fwind, the times of its frames.
In the Field Book
- High windFB-EVT-150
- Coriolis as geometryFB-ENG-008
Over a state
AlabamaAlaskaArizonaArkansasCaliforniaColoradoConnecticutDelawareDistrict of ColumbiaFloridaGeorgiaHawaiiIdahoIllinoisIndianaIowaKansasKentuckyLouisianaMaineMarylandMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaMississippiMissouriMontanaNebraskaNevadaNew HampshireNew JerseyNew MexicoNew YorkNorth CarolinaNorth DakotaOhioOklahomaOregonPennsylvaniaRhode IslandSouth CarolinaSouth DakotaTennesseeTexasUtahVermontVirginiaWashingtonWest VirginiaWisconsinWyoming
With it
Severe AlertsWeather by stateForecast accuracyInstrument atlas
Beside it
Forecast, hour by hour
Temperature
For
The temperature ahead across the lower 48, Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico, hour by hour, for seven days: warm and cold air on the move.
-20110 F