Forecast, hour by hour
Wind
For
The wind ahead, in miles an hour, with lines that flow the way it blows: calm, breezy, or strong enough to harm.
075 mph
Forecast map / Forecast, hour by hour
Forecast wind gusts map
Over Buena Vista, Virginia, where the map opens. The whole country
The strongest gusts ahead, in miles an hour: the brief bursts that bring down limbs and power lines. 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 gusts map shows
The strongest gusts ahead, in miles an hour: the brief bursts above the steady wind that bring down limbs and power lines. Gusts over 58 mph are what a severe thunderstorm or high wind warning names.
How to read it
- Under 20 mph
- Little gusting.
- 20 to 40 mph
- Gusty; loose things blow about.
- 40 to 58 mph
- Limbs down, power cuts possible.
- Over 58 mph
- Severe; what a severe thunderstorm or high wind warning names.
- Over 74 mph
- Hurricane force.
What it is for
- Know when to tie down, take in or stay off the road.
- See where power lines and trees are most at risk.
- Read with the wind map: steady wind and gusts together.
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=fgust, the times of its frames.
In the Field Book
- High windFB-EVT-150
Over a state
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With it
Severe AlertsWeather by stateForecast accuracyInstrument atlas
Beside it
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.
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