Some lingering light snow and snow showers can be expected this evening across the Great Lakes and New England in the wake of low pressure exiting well offshore of the Northeast.
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High pressure will be building across much of the Midwest and stretching east across the Ohio Valley and toward the East Coast by Saturday which will yield drying conditions and temperatures that will actually be a bit above normal given a lack of cold air advancing south from Canada.
While the Northeast gradually begins to dry out, the next storm system will be dropping southeast across the Four Corners states tonight through Saturday, and this will bring an axis of accumulating snowfall initially across the central Rockies.
A swath of heavy snow is then expected to develop and spread east across portions of the central High Plains, and areas of southeast Colorado and western Kansas are expected to see as much as 6 to 10 inches of snow by Saturday evening.
The northern portion of this storm system will advance east and weaken somewhat as it crosses the Midwest, Ohio Valley and Great Lakes through Sunday, but will still be capable of producing a fairly large swath of at least light snow with locally an inch or two possible by Sunday evening given at least marginally cold enough temperatures.
However, farther south, the energy with this system will be focusing a developing area of low pressure across the western Gulf of Mexico which will advance northeast and cross the central and eastern Gulf Coast by Sunday morning before then lifting up across the Southeast and the coastal plain of the Mid-Atlantic states by Sunday night.
This will yield a sufficient return flow of warm air and moisture for areas of locally heavy showers and thunderstorms to impact the Gulf Coast states and the Southeast going through the weekend.
As much as 1 to 2 inches of rain can be expected with isolated heavier amounts.
A very localized threat of flash flooding and severe weather be possible on Sunday as a few stronger thunderstorms cross the Southeast, and the Weather Prediction Center and Storm Prediction Center respectively have issued a Marginal Risk of these specific hazards.
As this area of low pressure deepens along the East Coast Sunday night and approaches the Northeast by Monday, there will be an expanding area of moderate to locally heavy snow across the interior sections of New York and New England just in time to start the new week.
Across the West, as the initial system dropping through Four Corners region pulls away, strong high pressure will follow and temperatures across much of the Great Basin and the Southwest will be below normal.
High temperatures will locally be as much as 10 to 20 degrees below normal this weekend and the overnight lows are expected to drop low enough that some of the interior valleys of California, including the San Joaquin Valley, may see subfreezing temperatures.
Precautions should be taken accordingly to protect any sensitive outdoor agricultural interests.
A new cold front will dive southeast across the Intermountain West by the end of the weekend, and this will help to reinforce below normal temperatures heading into early next week. ■