Newest run · HRRR, RRFS and RDPS four times a day · ECAPE · snow bands
Short-range models
The HRRR, RRFS and RDPS drawn in your browser at each model's own grid spacing (3 km, 3 km and 10 km): simulated infrared, simulated radar with precipitation type and isobars, cloud ceiling, visibility, 2 m temperature and dewpoint, vertically integrated smoke, 80 m wind and incoming shortwave, with labelled contours. Scroll or pinch to zoom, drag to pan, and hover (or tap) for the model's value.
What each field is, model by model
| Field | HRRR (NOAA, 3 km) | RRFS (NOAA, 3 km) | RDPS (ECCC, 10 km) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Simulated IR | Brightness temperature a GOES-East 10.3 µm imager would see (UPP field SBT124) | GOES-16 ABI band 13, 10.3 µm (SBTA1613) | No simulated band exists in the RDPS output. Shown instead: the OLR-derived brightness temperature, Tb = (OLR/σ)¼, from the instantaneous outgoing longwave radiation at the top of the atmosphere. It is a proxy for IR, not a satellite band: it integrates the whole longwave spectrum, so clear skies read 20–30 K colder than a window channel, while cloud tops come out close. |
| Radar + precipitation type | Simulated reflectivity 1 km above ground, coloured by the categorical precipitation type at the surface (freezing rain > sleet > snow > rain; rain and snow together shown as mix); isobars from MSLP (MAPS reduction) every 2 hPa | As HRRR; isobars from MSLP (MSLET reduction) | No simulated reflectivity exists. Shown instead: the precipitation rate (mm/h) coloured by the model's precipitation type, on the radar colour scale; isobars from MSLP |
| Precipitation accumulation | Total (APCP); snow = the HRRR's own snowfall (ASNOW, variable density); freezing rain = the model's accumulated freezing rain (FRZR, liquid equivalent, not ice accretion); sleet = APCP accumulated in hours whose precipitation type is sleet (liquid equivalent) | As HRRR (sleet 3-hourly past 36 h) | Total; snow = 10:1 from the accumulated snow water equivalent (not a model snowfall); freezing rain and sleet = the model's own liquid-equivalent accumulations |
| Cloud ceiling | Height of the lowest broken or overcast layer above the ground (the model's ceiling height minus the terrain) | As HRRR | Not in the RDPS output |
| Visibility | Surface visibility; above 10 mi shown as “10+”, as a METAR reports it | As HRRR | Not in the RDPS output |
| 2 m temperature, dewpoint | In °F, stored to 0.5 °F | ||
| Smoke | Vertically integrated smoke (column mass density, COLMD), mg m−2 | RRFS-SD column smoke (organic particulate matter, COLMD), mg m−2 | From ECCC's RAQDPS-FireWork air-quality run (wildfire-smoke PM2.5 column), 00 and 12 UTC to 72 h; a 06 or 18 UTC RDPS run shows the FireWork run 6 h older, matched on valid time |
| 80 m wind | Speed shaded, wind barbs in knots (half barb 5, full 10, pennant 50), from the model's u and v at 80 m above ground | ||
| Incoming shortwave | Downward shortwave at the surface, instantaneous at the valid time | As HRRR (instantaneous) | Mean over the hour ending at the valid time (the difference of the model's accumulated flux) |
Runs and timing
Airports: large and medium airports with scheduled service in the US and Canada from OurAirports (public domain); the large hubs show at national scale and the rest as you zoom in. Hover or tap one for the model's value there.
Wind and solar plants (shown on the 80 m wind and shortwave maps; at national scale only the larger ones): the U.S. Wind Turbine Database v8.3 (USGS, LBNL and ACP; turbines grouped into projects) and the U.S. Large-Scale Solar PV Database v4.0 (USGS and LBNL), both public domain. Circles and squares scale with capacity; hover for name, capacity and year.
HRRR: the 00, 06, 12 and 18 UTC runs, every hour to 48 h (the hourly runs that stop at 18 h are not shown). RRFS v1: the 00, 06, 12 and 18 UTC runs to 84 h, every hour to 36 h and every 3 hours after (its other hourly runs write only 15-minute surface files to 18 h and are not shown). RDPS: 00, 06, 12 and 18 UTC, every hour to 84 h. Only the newest run of each model is kept. A run appears once its last forecast hour is published; GitHub runs the jobs, so expect it about 2–3 hours after its start time for the HRRR and 4–5 hours for the RRFS and RDPS.
How the page works
Nothing on this page is a picture. Each field and hour is shipped as the model's own numbers, rounded to 256 levels (0.625 K for infrared, 0.5 °F for temperature and dewpoint, 0.4 m/s for wind, 5 W m−2 for shortwave, and 2–3 % steps on logarithmic scales for ceiling, visibility and smoke) on the native model grid, and your browser colours, projects, contours and reads it: zooming shows the model's grid cells, and the hover value is the stored one, within those steps. Maps are drawn on the HRRR's Lambert conformal projection for all three models, so switching model keeps the view. Contours (every 10 °F with the freezing line in blue; dewpoint every 10 °F with 60 and 70 emphasised; ceiling 500/1,000/3,000 ft; visibility 1/3/5 mi; 80 m wind 10/15/20 m/s; isobars every 2 hPa on the radar map) are traced in your browser from the same numbers after a light smoothing, so they show the pattern, not every 3 km wiggle. Boundaries: Natural Earth; US states and counties: US Census via us-atlas.
Related: entraining CAPE from the HRRR and snow-band diagnostics from the HRRR, RRFS and RDPS. Data: NOAA HRRR and RRFS (AWS open data; NOMADS for the RRFS), ECCC RDPS and RAQDPS-FireWork (MSC Datamart). Model output as published, uncorrected.