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Forecasts come from the National Weather Service's own computer models, and current conditions from the nearest reporting weather station. Both are served through the weather API. A forecast is guidance, not a warning, and anything the Weather Service has actually issued is on the live map.
California sits at 38.6303°N, 92.5671°W in Moniteau County, Missouri. The forecast above is drawn for that point from the National Weather Service's own computer models: a seven-day outlook, and a finer-grained one covering the next eighteen hours where it reaches, and the radar and alert panels show what the Weather Service has out over the area right now.
Place data from the US Census Bureau. Coordinates are the Census internal point for California, and the forecast is for that location, not for every address inside the city limits, and a large city can have real weather differences from one side to the other.
The nearest Doppler radar is KEAX (Kansas City, MO), 92 miles to the W. A WSR-88D's lowest routine scan sits half a degree above horizontal, and the earth curves away beneath it, so by the time that beam reaches California its centre is about 8,500 ft above ground. At that range the beam overshoots the layer where severe weather organises. The radar is describing the middle of the storm, not its base , which is why a warning for California can look unsupported on the mosaic and still be right. Trust the warning over the picture.
The closest instrument actually measuring the air is KJEF · Jefferson City Mem on the ASOS/AWOS network, 22 miles away. Far enough that "current conditions" for California is an educated reading of somewhere else, worth knowing before you plan around a single temperature.
Beam height is the standard 4/3-earth approximation for the 0.5° scan and assumes normal refraction; it is where the centre of the beam is, not its edges, and unusual temperature profiles bend it. Radar siting from the NWS WSR-88D network, station positions from the Missouri observing network as of this build.
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