{"id":589029,"date":"2026-04-17T03:58:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T03:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/589029\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T03:58:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T03:58:11","slug":"breaking-down-our-convective-outlooks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/589029\/","title":{"rendered":"Breaking down our convective outlooks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | text-start article-text\">MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) -Severe Weather Awareness Week continues with a look at the colorful severe weather maps seen every spring and summer: the convective outlooks from the Storm Prediction Center.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">These outlooks show where severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, damaging winds, or large hail are possible anywhere from today all the way out to eight days.<\/p>\n<p>Understanding the colors<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The colors green, yellow, orange, and red do not rank how bad the storm will be. They show how likely severe weather is within 25 miles of a point.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">A \u201cSlight Risk\u201d doesn\u2019t mean \u201cslight impact.\u201d It means scattered severe storms are possible. Many people misunderstand the categories. Some even think \u201cEnhanced\u201d is worse than \u201cModerate.\u201d It\u2019s not. Moderate is a higher risk.<\/p>\n<p>New for 2026<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The Storm Prediction Center added something called Conditional Intensity Groups, or CIGs. These tell forecasters how strong storms could become if everything lines up.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">A day that\u2019s only a Slight Risk can still carry the potential for significant tornadoes or damaging winds.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Looping Radar.gif\" width=\"100%\"\/>How forecasts evolve<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Days 4-8: Broad outlooks showing general areas<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Days 1-3: More detailed predictions<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Day 1: Updated multiple times with specific tornado, wind, and hail threats<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/hourbyhour.jpg\" width=\"100%\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/wi_feels.jpg\" width=\"100%\"\/>What it means<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Convective outlooks are an early warning system. They\u2019re the first signal that the atmosphere is setting the stage for severe weather. Local forecasts, watches, and warnings provide the full picture.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Don\u2019t ignore the lower risk categories. Some of the most impactful severe weather days have come from what started as a \u201cSlight Risk.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/extended.jpg\" width=\"100%\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"text | text-start article-text\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbc15.com\/page\/find-nbc15-news-wherever-you-are\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Click here<\/a> to download the WMTV15 News app or our WMTV15 First Alert weather app.<\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2022 WMTV. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) -Severe Weather Awareness Week continues with a look at the colorful severe weather maps seen&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":589030,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61406,64664,113364,4,450,38722,100340,113370,5266,113357,113367,113371,34329,113359,113356,11315,128522,10095,2854,113369,451,13014,113358,113368,12970,32572,113365,17776,113362,113360,3,19079,113361,14062,113363,24338,1897,1740,113355,60376,257364,1608,83676,452,453,109411,113366,74583,2986,6322,173727,19818,182401],"class_list":["post-589029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-beaver-dam","tag-beloit","tag-boscobel","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-brian","tag-charlie","tag-cloudy","tag-cold","tag-corriveau","tag-dane","tag-delaney-boles","tag-dodge","tag-dodgeville","tag-doogs","tag-forecast","tag-frost","tag-grant","tag-green","tag-green-lake","tag-headlines","tag-iowa","tag-janesville","tag-jefferson","tag-kevin","tag-lafayette","tag-lone-rock","tag-madison","tag-mineral-point","tag-monroe","tag-news","tag-november","tag-platteville","tag-portage","tag-prairie-du-chien","tag-rain","tag-richland","tag-rock","tag-shortino","tag-snow","tag-southern-wisconsin-weather","tag-sun","tag-sunny","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-vernon","tag-viroqua","tag-watertown","tag-weather","tag-wildfire","tag-wind-chill","tag-winter","tag-wintry-mix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=589029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/589030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=589029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=589029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=589029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}