he mid-section of the country will be in an unsettled pattern with active to locally severe weather into the weekend as upper-level Pacific moisture in association with a subtropical jet stream will interacts with a cold air mass dipping into the center of the country.
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Meanwhile lower-level moisture from the Gulf of Mexico will be ingested into the system as well.
hese complex interactions will result in an axis of heavy rain and possibly severe weather to develop over the Lower Mississippi Valley spreading across the Gulf states and into the Southeast by Saturday.
he Storm Prediction Center has Slight Risks in effect for sever weather through Sunday morning for parts of the Deep South and Southeast.
The Weather Prediction Center has Moderate an Slight Risks in effect for much of the same region for excessive rainfall and flooding concerns. Meanwhile to the north, a low-level disturbance that has been sustaining locally heavy snow over the central High Plains is forecast to weaken and allow the snow there, as well as the snow over the central to southern Rockies, to gradually taper off into this evening.
By Saturday, a low pressure center is forecast to consolidate over the Ohio Valley when the system intensifies more rapidly and tracks northeastward into the lower Great Lakes Saturday night.
his will lead to areas of locally heavy rain along with increasingly strong and gusty winds to develop from the Ohio Valley to New England late Saturday into Sunday.
Colder air wrapping around the low pressure center is expected to change the rain to wet snow from across the Great Lakes to portions of northern New England especially for the higher elevations. In the wake of these systems high pressure will build in over the central U.S. and will promote drying out Saturday.
he dry weather will extend into much of the western U.S. However, moisture associated with the next Pacific system is forecast to reach the Olympic Peninsula later today with rain for the lower elevations and snow for rather high elevations.
he rain and mountain snow will expand southward across Oregon and into northern California on Saturday into Saturday night.
he Cascades will see snow picking up intensity on Saturday as the next batch of moisture gets ready to reach the coastline of the Pacific Northwest by early on Sunday. ■
A clipper system will move quickly across the northern Plains into the Midwest Friday and the Northeast by Saturday, bringing a wintry mix of rain and snow showers ahead of a sweeping cold front.