About Weatherplannner

"Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather." - John Ruskin

Precipitation

The calendar icons depict the types of precipitation forecast by WeatherPlanner.

Many of the words used to describe precipitation seem familiar, but they have specific meanings in the context of a WeatherPlanner forecast.

There are three categories of precipitation in the forecast:

• Generally Dry: No weather systems producing precipitation are predicted. If any precipitation does occur, it will be light and short in duration. The chance of such precipitation affecting your plans is less than 30 percent. While sunshine is often great concern, Generally Dry days are mostly sunny or partly sunny.
• Non-significant: Very light precipitation occurring over a short period of time, a brief shower, or drizzle occurring over a matter of hours but not accumulating to significant amounts. The chance of such precipitation affecting your plans is between 30 and 60 percent.
• Significant: Moderate to heavy precipitation accumulating over time, continuous precipitation accumulating over a long period of time, or heavy precipitation over a short period of time. The chance of such precipitation affecting your plans is greater than 60 percent.

Non-significant and significant also describe the precipitation in relation to what is considered normal for that location. For example, a half-inch of rain would be significant in a dry climate like Phoenix, AZ, but could be non-significant in a rainy place like Seattle, WA.

Other Terms Used in The Icons Are:

• Chance: A slight possibility that a weather event (rain, for example) may occur at a given location. If it does, the predicted amounts are expected to be non-significant.
• Rain: Intermittent or steady precipitation, covering a fairly extensive area (unlike showers, which are spotty and more erratic).
• Showers: Precipitation usually characterized by the suddenness with which it starts and stops, its rapid change of intensity, and its hit-and-miss nature over a particular location. Showers may affect one part of a forecast area and not another. Showers can occur as either rain or snow and are not long in duration.
• Snow: Intermittent or steady precipitation in the form of, for example, snowflakes or ice pellets.