A slowly lifting warm front stretching from southern Florida to the Gulf of Mexico along with a developing surface low pressure system lifting northward to the central Gulf Coast is expected to continue producing unsettled weather throughout much of the Southeast into Thursday and Friday.
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Initially, heavy rainfall is expected to continue over southern Florida through early this evening along/north of the lifting warm front.
Several additional inches of rain could lead to scattered flash/urban flooding concerns.
The flooding threat is primarily confined to the Gold Coast/Miami metro area.
Into tonight and early Thursday, gusty winds and heavy rain are expected to progress northward into the central Gulf Coast associated with the lifting surface low and nearby upper-level closed low anchored over Louisiana.
Ample moisture and scattered thunderstorm activity is anticipated to spread northward through the Southeast and western/central Gulf Coast, with isolated chances for flash flooding.
By Friday, the unsettled weather is most likely to swing eastward along the lifting warm front and into the Carolinas, where additional isolated chances for flash flooding exist.
Farther west, a sharp upper-level trough over the Northwest and developing storm system over the central High Plains will lead to potentially heavy snow throughout much of the Intermountain West and northern/central Rockies.
The heaviest snow is forecast to occur tonight and Thursday across southwest Montana and the Yellowstone region of northwest Wyoming.
Here, over a foot of snow is likely in the higher elevations, with several inches of snow possible in the lower elevations.
Heavy snow along and behind a cold front may also develop across the western Colorado Rockies on Friday, where up to a foot of snow is possible across the highest mountain peaks.
As this system ejects into the Great Plains, a well-defined dry line across the central/southern Plains should aid in clusters of thunderstorms developing and pushing eastward Friday evening.
The Storm Prediction Center has highlighted an area from southeast Kansas to north-central Texas as having a Slight Risk (level 2/5) for severe thunderstorms.
Scattered showers to the north across the northern Plains will have the potential to exacerbate flooding concerns from North Dakota to the Upper Great Lakes when combined with a melting snowpack.
Meanwhile, well-above average to record-breakingly warm temperatures are forecast to continue from the Midwest throughout the Great Lakes and into the Northeast over the next few days.
Warm air flowing around an anomalous upper-level ridge over the eastern half of the Nation will allow for the summer-like warmth and widespread highs into the 70s and 80s.
Several daily high temperature records are forecast on Thursday from Wisconsin to southern New England.
Additionally, dry vegetation, low relative humidity, and gusty winds may lead to critical fire weather on Thursday from the southern High Plains to the Midwest. ■
A strong storm that originated over the Pacific has tracked through the Great Basin and is currently transitioning across the Rockies to redevelop across the central High Plains later today into early Saturday morning.