District of ColumbiaSite status

Severe weather analysis

Observations and analyses of the atmosphere now, from NWS, WPC and SPC. Not a forecast and not a warning: for those, see the Briefing and the Live tracker.

SPC storm ingredients: feeds current

SPC storm ingredients: Feed current; checked .

Checked means retrieved, not newly issued. Each graphic retains its issue, observation, initialization or valid time. Site publishing status is separate.

Storm ingredients: SPC’s hourly analysis

SPC mesoanalysis map, 0–1 km storm-relative helicity, East Central region, analysis for 05Z. Its key and units are in SPC’s picture; what it shows is described beside it.
Analysis SPC mesoanalysis for . The East Central region. Data: NOAA/SPC.

Low-level spin: 0–1 km storm-relative helicity (m²/s²)

How much spin the lowest kilometre of wind could give a storm’s updraft. Higher values matter for tornadoes only where supercells actually form.

The technical reading

Storm-relative helicity from the surface to 1 km above ground, using SPC’s estimated right-moving supercell motion, in m²/s². Values above roughly 100–150 favour tornadic supercells when other ingredients are present.

An ingredient, not a forecast: SPC’s analysis of the hour, from observations and a short-range model’s first guess. No one value is a warning or an outcome; storms need several ingredients together, and something to start them.

SPC mesoanalysis checked · Data: NOAA/SPC

District of Columbia briefing

Not an official warning service. Warnings and watches are the National Weather Service’s, outlooks and reports the Storm Prediction Center’s and the Weather Prediction Center’s (Data: NOAA/NWS, NOAA/SPC, NOAA/WPC). When a warning is issued for you, act on it, and use weather.gov or a NOAA Weather Radio for where you are.