Significant Weather Prognostic Charts PDF Guidelines are provided by the Private Pilot online.

I like to use surface analysis and prog charts to get a big picture of what the weather will be like over the next few days.Although accuweather.com offers an interesting 45 day forecast, no one can really accurately predict the weather more than a few days out for the level of detail we need as pilots.

We have a legend of symbols under the chart, so we won't waste a lot of time talking about the individual markings.We want to talk about the weather picture that is being painted here for us currently and looking 48 hours out as we proceed through the TOPIC.There is a trough over Louisiana, Oklahoma, and the Arkansas area.There is a weakly organized cold front meeting a warm front that stretches from Texas up into the North East US.The cold front is disorganized, not moving quickly, and it is the middle of November, so I wouldn't expect a lot of weather to pop up along that line.We can see the tight spacing on the isobars over North and South Dakota, and as such with a strong pressure change over a short distance I would expect some windy conditions in that area.

The prog chart is just a surface analysis chart with predicted precipitation added to it.

We talked about the surface analysis chart at the top of the page, but this 12hr forecast is just about 15 hours away.The weak cold front dissipated just 15 hours later and the trough aloft over Louisiana, Arkansas and Missouri helped lift some moist air up into the atmosphere to create some light precipitation.The cold front currently over the Midwest is making its way eastward and will likely push the moist air even higher and cause some more intense weather in the near future.There is an additional 12 hours into the future.