scriptorium-library/prompts/pipeline-weather/common/data_package.user.md

Your task is to generate a local weather forecast analysis from the following YAML data package, which is prepared by the weatherreporter application.

Your analysis will be incorporated into a structured, user-facing report. The report may be for today, tomorrow, or a future date. You will be provided with precise output instructions following the YAML data package.

SOURCE ROLES AND WEIGHTING

Use report and briefing.metadata for framing: location, timezone, units, valid period, and generation time. Do not treat metadata as forecast evidence except where it identifies source relevance, such as alert counts or location matching.

For weather interpretation, think in four source layers, in this order:

1. Active hazard and risk products

Give appropriate weight to official hazard or risk products that the package identifies as relevant to the forecast location and valid period. This includes current or future package sections for alerts, watches, warnings, advisories, SPC outlook polygon hits, WPC excessive rainfall outlook polygon hits, mesoscale discussions, precipitation discussions, or similar location-matched products.

These products have already been filtered or matched to the forecast location. Treat them as locally relevant, but distinguish product strength:

• Active warnings are urgent and should dominate the lead and relevant sections.
• Watches and advisories should be mentioned prominently when they affect the report period.
• Outlook/risk polygon hits may or may not be important local risk signals; they can vary significantly with respect to both impact and certainty. Higher risk levels deserve greater and more detailed attention than lower risk levels. Outlook/risk polygons should elevate the caveat, uncertainty, and forecast outlook discussion without necessarily implying that severe weather is likely or even probable at the exact point.
• Mesoscale discussions and precipitation discussions are strong short-term situational-awareness signals when they cover the location and valid period.

For the current schema, use briefing.applicable_risk_products.alert_digest and briefing.metadata.alerts to determine whether relevant local alerts exist. If relevant_count is zero, do not imply that the report location is under an active alert merely because active_count is nonzero.

2. Derived summaries

Use derived summaries as the baseline interpretation of the local forecast when no active hazard product requires stronger framing.

For the current schema:

• Use briefing.derived_daily_summary, if present, for the overall daily theme, high/low temperature, dominant conditions, daily precipitation probability, most likely precipitation hour, and thunder flag.
• Use briefing.derived_daypart_summaries, if present, for daypart timing, dominant conditions, temperature ranges, maximum precipitation chances, and notable conditions.
• Use briefing.precip_timing, if present, as the deterministic summary of maximum precipitation probability and whether thunder is mentioned in the structured local forecast.
• Use briefing.outdoor_windows, if present, only if it adds meaningful signal to the daypart discussion. Do not turn the report into outdoor-planning advice.

3. Narrative products

Use briefing.narrative_products for meteorological context, prose framing, uncertainty, and conditional outcomes. This includes the AFD, Weather Story, NWS narrative forecast text, SPC narrative text, WPC discussions, CPC discussions, and similar products. These products have the potential to add the highest degree of value to the weather report, but should be read with important context and caveats as discusssed below.

For the current schema:

• Use briefing.narrative_products.narrative_forecast.periods to confirm and reconcile official day/night wording, high/low temperatures, winds, and broad precipitation wording.
• Use briefing.narrative_products.weather_story to understand what the NWS considered the public-facing weather headline at the start of the day. Caveats: the covered forecast area for this product is relatively large, and it is only updated once per day, so be wary of discussion that relates to forecast events that have already occurred, or to geographical areas outside the forecast location.
• Use briefing.narrative_products.area_forecast_discussion.key_messages to understand what the NWS forecast office considered the most relevant, public-facing key messages. This product is updated somewhat more frequently than briefing.narrative_products.weather_story, but otherwise the same caveats apply: the covered forecast area for this product is relatively large, and one or more messges may relate to forecast events that have already occurred, or to geographical areas outside the forecast location.
• Use briefing.narrative_products.area_forecast_discussion.short_term for setup, local/regional nuance, confidence, uncertainty, and forecast dependencies affecting the next 12-48 hours.
• Use briefing.narrative_products.area_forecast_discussion.long_term only if it affects the valid day, the overnight period immediately following it, or to support a brief note about what to watch for over the following day/days.
• If briefing.narrative_products.spc_convective_discussion.discussions is present, use it to provide context to the severe weather forecast. Because the covered forecast area for this product is relatively large, be wary of discussion that relates to geographical areas far from the forecast location, except as a discussion of the broader synoptic pattern. Additionally, because outlooks are not typically canceled after they are issued, be wary of an outlook that relates to potential severe weather that has not (and will not) materialize based upon more recently updated forecast data.

Do not let broad regional narrative language override point-specific local forecast data unless an applicable hazard/risk product, local forecast data, or the narrative itself clearly supports that local implication.

4. Raw underlying data

Use briefing.raw_data as the source of truth for exact timing, temperatures, precipitation probabilities, wind, humidity/dew point, and condition changes when more detail is needed.

For the current schema, briefing.raw_data.hourly_forecast.periods is the most granular local forecast source.

Use briefing.raw_data.current_conditions only as generation-time context.

If raw data and derived summaries appear to disagree, prefer the raw data for exact values and timing, but treat the disagreement as a reason to be cautious rather than as permission to invent an explanation.

CONFLICT RESOLUTION

When sources differ, ask:

1. Which source is most local to the forecast point?
2. Which source is valid for the report period or near-term window?
3. Which source is most authoritative for the type of claim being made?
4. Is the source describing the most likely outcome, or a conditional/low-probability hazard?

Do not turn regional severe-weather discussion into a deterministic local severe-weather forecast unless point-specific data supports that conclusion. Conversely, do not bury a location-specific warning, watch, advisory, outlook polygon hit, or valid mesoscale discussion merely because the baseline derived summary is otherwise quiet.

HAZARD AND SEVERE-WEATHER RULES

Mention a hazard only to the extent supported by location-specific products, local structured forecast data, or clearly applicable narrative text.

Preserve product strength and uncertainty. An SPC Slight Risk, WPC Excessive Rainfall Outlook, or similar polygon hit is a locally relevant risk signal, not a warning and not a guarantee of local impact.

Preserve geography. If the package says the main severe risk is north of the metro, north of I-70, along a front, or over a specific part of the CWA, carry that limitation into the report.

Preserve timing. Do not say storms “arrive,” “clear,” “develop,” or “move in” at a specific time unless the hourly data, narrative forecast, Weather Story, AFD, or hazard product supports that timing.

PRECIPITATION RULES

Do not overstate low precipitation probabilities.

Use precipitation wording consistently:

• 0–14%: usually omit unless relevant to a trend, caveat, hazard product, regional risk, or timing uncertainty.
• 15–24%: “slight chance,” “isolated,” “spotty,” or “brief passing shower/storm possible.”
• 25–39%: “chance,” “scattered,” or “some showers/storms possible.”
• 40–59%: “good chance” or “showers/storms likely enough to plan around.”
• 60%+: “likely,” “wet,” or “unsettled,” if consistent with the narrative forecast.

If the package does not provide rainfall amounts, say nothing about totals unless a narrative product provides a supported qualitative signal. Do not invent QPF.

If local precipitation chances are low and no meaningful local impacts are expected, do not imply that, e.g., thunderstorms are likely solely because regional precipitation or severe weather appears in a narrative product. Mention the regional caveat if relevant, but preserve geographic limits.

STYLE RULES

• Plainspoken, precise, and weather-literate.
• Compact, but not shallow.
• No generic public-safety filler.
• No umbrella/rain-jacket/snow-boots advice unless unusually warranted by a specific hazard.
• No commute or outdoor-plan boilerplate.
• No unsupported precision.
• No apologies for missing data.
• Avoid phrases like “developing,” “moving in,” “clearing,” “threatening,” or “impacting” unless the timing and trend are clearly supported by the package.
• Prefer “most likely,” “possible,” “favored,” “conditional,” “limited coverage,” and “worth watching” when those phrases accurately reflect the data.