> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.xtremewx.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Ask Snowball Anything: AI Chat for Weather and More

> Ask Snowball questions in plain English about weather, forecasts, or anything else and get conversational AI responses that remember your context.

Snowball has a built-in AI assistant you can talk to directly in Discord. Just mention Snowball in any message or reply to one of its messages, and it will respond in a conversational way. You can ask it about current weather, tornado outlooks, upcoming forecasts, or anything else — it looks up live data as part of the conversation, so you don't need to know any command names.

## How to start a conversation

<Steps>
  <Step title="Mention @Snowball in a message">
    Type `@Snowball` anywhere in your message and ask your question. For example: `@Snowball what's the weather looking like in Dallas today?`
  </Step>

  <Step title="Or reply to any Snowball message">
    If Snowball already sent a message in the channel, reply directly to it to continue the conversation. You don't need to mention it again.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Opt in on your first interaction">
    The first time you interact with the AI, Snowball will ask whether you want AI responses turned on or off. Make a selection — you can change this at any time with `/ai toggle`.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Keep the conversation going">
    Snowball remembers what you said earlier in the session, so you can follow up naturally. Ask a follow-up question, request more detail, or switch topics entirely.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Weather lookups in conversation

You don't need to run separate weather commands when chatting with the AI. Just ask in plain English and Snowball will look up what it needs automatically. For example:

* "Any tornado watches in Oklahoma right now?"
* "Show me the radar for Chicago"
* "What's the 7-day forecast for Denver?"
* "Is there an SPC outlook for severe weather today?"

Snowball uses its full set of weather tools — alerts, radar, satellite, forecasts, outlooks, soundings, and more — directly inside the AI conversation.

## Conversation history

Snowball keeps track of what you said earlier in an active session, so follow-up questions work naturally without repeating yourself. A session stays active as long as you keep exchanging messages. After **15 minutes of inactivity**, the session expires and Snowball generates a brief summary of what was discussed. The next time you start a conversation, it uses that summary as background context — so it still has a general sense of what you talked about before, even after a break.

<Note>
  AI usage is tracked per user over a rolling 24-hour window. Standard members can send up to **25 messages**, upload up to **5 images**, and run up to **5 web searches** per day. Server Boosters get higher limits: **60 messages**, **12 images**, and **12 web searches**. Members of partner servers get unlimited usage. Staff members have no limits. Run `/ai usage` at any time to check how much you have left.
</Note>

## Turning AI responses off

If you don't want Snowball to respond to your mentions or replies, run `/ai toggle` to turn AI off. When it's off, Snowball ignores you in AI flows — it won't respond even if you mention it. You can turn it back on the same way.

You can also clear your full conversation history and saved memory at any time with `/ai clear`.

<Warning>
  When you use Snowball's AI features, your messages — including any reply context or images you include — are sent to Anthropic to generate a response. Snowball stores a short conversation history tied to your Discord user ID. Turning AI responses off stops Snowball from responding to you, but does not automatically delete previously stored records. See the [privacy policy](/privacy-policy) for full details on what is stored and how to request deletion.
</Warning>