A potent low pressure system will bring increasingly active weather from the Western U.S. and into the Plains over the next couple of days.
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Abundant moisture ahead of this system streaming into the Pacific Northwest will continue to bring showers and thunderstorms, along with gusty winds, to coastal regions through this evening.
Meanwhile, heavy snow is expected in the higher terrain from the Cascades and into the northern Rockies.
Snowfall may be measured in feet over parts of the northern Cascades before the snow begins to taper off on Tuesday night.
As this system moves into the northern Rockies and High Plains, widespread high winds are expected to impact these areas and especially the foothills into Wednesday, periodically accompanied with mixed rain and snow as the system reorganizes and expands over the northern Plains.
Farther south, showers and thunderstorms are expected to develop ahead of an intensifying cold front later on Tuesday as it sweeps across the upper Midwest.
The thunderstorms could intensify further as they reach the western portion of the Great Lakes by Wednesday morning with strong and gusty winds.
Farther south, a stationary front across south Florida will maintain a threat for thunderstorms, containing locally heavy rain, into this evening.
Moisture from the Gulf of Mexico will begin to surge north toward the southern tier states and converge with a cold front moving into the southern Plains.
Thunderstorms will expand in coverage and intensify this evening and into Tuesday across eastern Oklahoma and Texas and into the lower Mississippi Valley.
As the warm front lifts across the south, expect storms to spread into the Deep South and the Southeast Tuesday and Wednesday.
Given ample instability, severe weather as well as heavy to excessive rainfall are possible.
SPC highlights these regions within a slight to enhanced risk for severe thunderstorms and WPC has a slight risk for flash flooding.
See the outlooks from SPC and WPC for additional details.
Farther north, showers and storms will also expand into the Mid-Atlantic states Tuesday into Wednesday.
A compact low pressure system is forecast to intensify near the Carolina coast by Wednesday morning with a period of enhanced rainfall and gusty winds near its track.
Fire weather will also become an increasing threat across the High Plains as very dry conditions and gusty winds behind the developing storm system into the Central/Eastern U.S.
SPC shows and elevated to critical fire weather threat through Tuesday and into Wednesday all the way from northeast Montana southward to West Texas and eastern New Mexico.
In terms of temperatures across the CONUS over the short range period, well above average highs are likely Tuesday across much of the Southern Plains, with widespread 80s and 90s (possibly reaching near 100 in south Texas) and a handful of record high temperatures possible across Texas.
By Wednesday, the warmth moves into the South and Eastern U.S., with daytime highs as much as 10 to 20 degrees above normal for some places.
The cold front across the West and into the Midwest will usher in much below normal temperatures across the Rockies on Tuesday and into the northern/central Plains on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, temperatures across the Southwest and California will trend warmer through the period underneath of a building upper level ridge. ■