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The forecast desk for broadcast meteorologists

Compare local guidance, record the call, and hand the next shift a forecast they can use. Then see how it verified.

See a shift

KCOU Columbia Regional Airport

Sample data

Sample guidance for KCOU. Choose a row to forecast it.
PeriodHRRRRRFSNAMGFSECMWFNBM
49°51°50°54°52°52°
75°77°73°74°78°75°
56°55°54°58°55°56°
71°69°70°72°66°69°

Warm and cool shading shows each model against NBM.

Your tonight low

Starts from NBM, 52°

Pick a row, adjust the number and record it. Nothing here is saved.

One shift, start to finish

WxLens follows the work you already do, from the first look at guidance to the morning after.

  1. Start with what changed

    Every model's newest run for your airport sits in one sheet, shaded against NBM. Runs still arriving say so, and stale data is labelled as stale.

    Since your last forecast
    NBM tonight's low
    −3°
    GFS 18Z
    arrived 14:52
    ECMWF 12Z
    collecting 31/48

  2. Make the call in seconds

    Type or nudge a high and low for each period. NBM's value is frozen the moment you save, so the comparison later is fair.

    Tonight's low
    51°
    NBM at save
    52°
    Time to record
    6 s

  3. Give the producer something clean

    Copy a brief or a spreadsheet-ready table. It carries run times, data age and source credits, so nothing old passes for new.

    KCOU Columbia — shift brief, exported Mon 5:50 PM CDT
Guidance (period highs/lows, °F): HRRR / GFS / NBM
  Tonight low     49 / 54 / 52
  Tomorrow high   75 / 74 / 75
Runs (UTC): HRRR 18Z Oct 12, GFS 18Z Oct 12, NBM 21Z Oct 12

  4. Leave the next shift a note

    Handoff notes sit beside the sheet for your whole station team, with who wrote them and when. The morning crew starts where you left off.

    “Leaning under NBM tonight. Clear skies and light winds by midnight, and the airport decouples early. Watch the GFS warm bias.”
    Evening forecaster, 10:45 p.m.

  5. next morning

    See how the call verified

    When the period ends, observations from the airport settle it. Your scorecard compares your forecasts with NBM's on the same nights, and only counts calls made before the period began.

    Observed low
    50°
    Your forecast
    51° · off by 1°
    NBM
    52° · off by 2°

Verification you can defend

Beating NBM is the comparison that matters. WxLens keeps the record honest enough that a chief meteorologist can stand behind it.

NBM is frozen when you save
Every forecast is compared with the NBM run you could actually see at the time, never a later one.
Only real forecasts count
Updates made after a period has started are kept, and scored separately from the forecast that came before.
Old data never looks new
Each run shows its age, partial runs say they are partial, and copied output carries the run dates.
Model upgrades stay apart
Every run is tagged with its model version. Results from different versions are never pooled.

Works next to the tools you already have

Keep your graphics system and your map sites. WxLens is the point forecast and the record behind it, with one-click links out to Pivotal Weather, College of DuPage, SPC and your NWS office.

Guidance in the sheet today

HRRR, RRFS, NAM, GFS, ECMWF IFS and NBM, with the AI models AIGFS and AIFS available alongside. Ten-day highs and lows, airport observations, daily normals and records.

Try it with your weather team

Pilots run with one station: your forecasters, your market, a few weeks of real shifts. Tell us your station and we will set up your airport. Working on your own? Create an account.

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