48.6940, -104.5960

1. Thu6 AM37°1%9 mph
2. 7 AM37°8 mph
3. 8 AM39°8 mph
4. 9 AM42°8 mph
5. 10 AM48°5%7 mph
6. 11 AM51°8 mph
7. 12 PM54°2%8 mph
8. 1 PM56°2%9 mph
9. 2 PM57°2%9 mph
10. 3 PM59°2%9 mph
11. 4 PM58°2%8 mph
12. 5 PM57°2%7 mph
13. 6 PM55°3 mph
14. 7 PM50°3 mph
15. 8 PM47°3 mph
16. 9 PM45°3 mph
17. 10 PM44°3 mph
18. 11 PM43°5 mph
19. Fri12 AM43°5 mph
20. 1 AM42°6 mph
21. 2 AM41°7 mph
22. 3 AM41°8 mph
23. 4 AM40°8 mph
24. 5 AM40°9 mph
25. 6 AM40°1%12 mph
26. 7 AM39°2%12 mph
27. 8 AM42°12 mph
28. 9 AM44°16 mph
29. 10 AM50°16 mph
30. 11 AM53°16 mph
31. 12 PM56°18 mph
32. 1 PM59°18 mph
33. 2 PM62°18 mph
34. 3 PM64°14 mph
35. 4 PM64°14 mph
36. 5 PM65°14 mph
37. 6 PM62°2%7 mph
38. 7 PM59°2%7 mph
39. 8 PM55°2%7 mph
40. 9 PM52°2%7 mph
41. 10 PM51°2%7 mph
42. 11 PM50°2%7 mph
43. Sat12 AM50°3%8 mph
44. 1 AM49°3%8 mph
45. 2 AM49°3%8 mph
46. 3 AM48°3%10 mph
47. 4 AM48°3%10 mph
48. 5 AM47°3%10 mph

Scroll sideways for more hours. Pick an hour for every number.

1. TodayOct 159°38°Sunny5%wind 12 mph · gusts 17 mph
2. FriOct 265°46°Mostly Cloudy2%wind 18 mph · gusts 28 mph
3. SatOct 363°38°Mostly Sunny3%wind 18 mph · gusts 28 mph
4. SunOct 465°43°Sunny0%wind 13 mph · gusts 20 mph
5. MonOct 574°48°Sunny0%wind 15 mph · gusts 24 mph
6. TueOct 671°45°Mostly Sunny1%wind 12 mph · gusts 20 mph
7. WedOct 767°44°Sunny1%wind 10 mph · gusts 17 mph
8. ThuOct 869°48°0%wind 10 mph · gusts 17 mph

• Feels like30°
• WindWNW 9 mphgusts 14 mph
• Radar over this pointno reading
• Humidity63%
• Dew point26°
• Pressure—
• UV index—
• Air quality—
• Visibility10 mi
• Sunrise and sunsetSunrise · Sunset · not yet up
• Moonrise9:02 PMMoonset 1:36 PM
• Moon phaseWaning gibbous73% lit

None of these is a measurement. Each is a rating of the forecast ahead, and of what is happening at the point right now, against what the activity or the ailment is known to mind, and each names the figure that decided it. An ailment or a pest is rated as a risk, low to extreme; an activity, a chore or a journey as a condition, poor to ideal.

Each rating says which span it is for: the rest of today’s daylight, tonight, or the next 24 hours.

Tonight has no dark, clear hour without a bright moon in this forecast. Rated poor.

Dark is the sun 18 degrees below the horizon; where it never gets that low, 12 degrees, marked nautical. Clear is sky cover of 20% or less. A bright moon is one above the horizon with a quarter or more of its disc lit. Transparency in the table is estimated from surface humidity (70% and 85% mark fair and poor) and visibility, since the forecast carries no haze or high cloud moisture. Seeing and transparency by hour, where shown, are Environment and Climate Change Canada’s astronomy forecast (regional model; seeing from cloud, wind shear, turbulence near the ground and the surface temperature trend; transparency from the moisture through the whole air column), under the Open Government Licence - Canada. Dew is the air within 2 °C of its dew point. Excellent is four or more clear moonless hours with good transparency; good is three; fair is one, or two clear hours.

Golden hour is the sun between 6 degrees above the horizon and 4 degrees below it; blue hour is the sun between 4 and 6 degrees below. These are the definitions timeanddate.com and PhotoPills use. Directions are degrees clockwise from true north, where the sun’s upper edge and the moon’s center cross a flat horizon; hills and buildings change both. None means the sun does not reach that height on the day; all day means it stays inside the band.

This hour: no-fly (gusts near or over your limit, low cloud limits height (107.51), wind at 400 ft near or over your limit, night: lighting and night training required (107.29)). No stretch of two good hours in the next three days.

Today: civil twilight for Part 107 6:28 AM to sunrise 6:58 AM, and sunset 6:37 PM to 7:07 PM. Anti-collision lighting is required in those minutes and at night.

Good Caution No-fly

Flight restrictions nearby

Reading the FAA’s temporary flight restrictions.

Flight restrictions on the map. TFRs are not the whole picture: controlled airspace around airports needs LAANC authorization. Check the FAA’s B4UFLY.

Wind at 400 ft is estimated from the 10 m forecast by the power law, with exponents for each Pasquill stability class (Irwin 1979, rural, as in EPA dispersion models; the class from wind, sun height and cloud, after Turner 1970); gusts keep the ground gust’s margin. Caution from three quarters of your limit; the default 24 mph is the wind resistance printed for common sub-250 g drones. 14 CFR 107.51: “The minimum flight visibility, as observed from the location of the control station must be no less than 3 statute miles” and at least “500 feet below the cloud”. 14 CFR 107.29: “No person may operate a small unmanned aircraft system during periods of civil twilight unless the small unmanned aircraft has lighted anti-collision lighting visible for at least 3 statute miles”; civil twilight is the 30 minutes before sunrise and after sunset, in Alaska the Air Almanac’s. Kp: SWPC’s scales say satellite navigation problems may occur at G3 (Kp 7) and navigation is “degraded for hours” at G4 (Kp 8); Kp 5 is the typical app warning. Typical limits, not rules: rain chance 30% caution and 60% no-fly, thunder 10% and 20%, below 0 °C caution and −10 °C no-fly, over 40 °C caution. Your drone’s manual and the airspace come first.

Hours fit for spraying, and the days dry enough for fieldwork and hay, read from this forecast’s wind, gusts, humidity, temperature and rain.

Spraying windows

• Thu 6 AM to 2 PM 8 hours, every hour within the rules
• Thu 4 PM to Fri 6 AM 14 hours, every hour within the rules
• Fri 6 PM to Sat 3 AM 9 hours, every hour within the rules
• Sat 9 PM to Sun 6 AM 9 hours, every hour within the rules
• Sun 8 AM to 9 PM 13 hours, every hour within the rules
• Mon 6 PM to 9 PM 3 hours, every hour within the rules
• Tue 8 AM to 12 PM 4 hours, every hour within the rules
• Tue 6 PM to Wed 5 AM 11 hours, every hour within the rules

Good Marginal No

Field days

Spraying: sustained wind 3 to 10 mph, the range US extension services and most labels give; gusts no more than 15 mph (this page’s limit); delta T (air minus wet-bulb temperature) 2 to 8 °C preferred and 8 to 10 °C marginal, from GRDC guidance, with the wet bulb by Stull’s formula; no hour at a 30% chance of rain or 0.25 mm forecast during the rain-free time. Follow the product label, which overrides all of this. Field days: dry is no daytime hour at a 30% chance and under 1 mm all day, wet is 6 mm (0.25 in) or more; soil moisture is not in the forecast, so ground still wet from earlier rain is not accounted for. Hay drying marks a dry day with humidity down to 50% and a breeze of 5 mph or more.

The best-rated day this week is Wednesday, rated good.

Periods in bold fall within an hour of sunrise or sunset. The weather’s side is the fishing index

Major periods are two hours centered on the moon’s passage overhead and underfoot; minor periods are one hour centered on moonrise and moonset: the conventional durations of John Alden Knight’s solunar tables (1936). The rating is this site’s: one point to start, two more within a day and a half of a new or full moon (one more within three and a half days), and one more when a period falls within an hour of sunrise or sunset. The theory has mixed support in fisheries research; the times are exact astronomy.

1. Today59° · 5% · NW 9 mph

   Sunny, with a high near 59. Northwest wind around 9 mph.

2. Tonight38° · SE 3–9 mph

   Partly cloudy, with a low around 38. Southeast wind 3 to 9 mph.

3. Friday65° · 2% · SSE 12–18 mph

   Mostly cloudy, with a high near 65. South southeast wind 12 to 18 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph.

4. Friday Night46° · 3% · SW 7–10 mph

   Partly cloudy, with a low around 46. Southwest wind 7 to 10 mph.

5. Saturday63° · 2% · NW 15–18 mph

   Mostly sunny, with a high near 63. Northwest wind 15 to 18 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph.

6. Saturday Night38° · NNW 5–10 mph

   Mostly clear, with a low around 38. North northwest wind 5 to 10 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph.

7. Sunday65° · ESE 3–9 mph

   Sunny, with a high near 65. East southeast wind 3 to 9 mph.

8. Sunday Night43° · SE 8–13 mph

   Mostly clear, with a low around 43. Southeast wind 8 to 13 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph.

9. Monday74° · SSE 15 mph

   Sunny, with a high near 74. South southeast wind around 15 mph, with gusts as high as 24 mph.

10. Monday Night48° · 1% · WSW 10 mph

    Mostly clear, with a low around 48. West southwest wind around 10 mph.

11. Tuesday71° · 1% · NW 8–12 mph

    Mostly sunny, with a high near 71. Northwest wind 8 to 12 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph.

12. Tuesday Night45° · 1% · WNW 7 mph

    Partly cloudy, with a low around 45.

13. Wednesday67° · W 6–10 mph

    Sunny, with a high near 67.

14. Wednesday Night44° · S 6 mph

    Partly cloudy, with a low around 44.

Written by the forecaster on duty for their own colleagues and for anyone who wants to know why the forecast says what it says. It is not edited for the public, so it uses the office’s shorthand; it is also the most honest thing any weather service publishes.

Fetching the discussion…

The national centers each publish a judgment the local grid does not carry. Read here at this exact coordinate.

Reading the outlooks…

The last spring freeze (32°F) usually comes around May 25 and the first fall freeze around September 14: a growing season of about 111 days.

One fall in ten brings a freeze by September 2; one spring in ten still has one after June 8.

Climate of 48.69, -104.60: normals, records and every month

The forecast office edits about sixty fields for every cell of its grid. The common ones are above; these are the rest, as the daily extreme, for anyone who needs the mixing height, the fire danger or the swell.

Each forecast day against the same calendar date at the nearest long-record station: the 1991 to 2020 normal, and the record high and low with the year they were set.

Reading the station’s record…