A complex interaction among a cold air mass dipping into the mid-section of the country, an amplifying upper-level trough, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico ingesting into the South, and a subtropical jet stream will bring widespread increment weather through the eastern U.S. into Sunday.
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The heaviest rainfall is expected to be found across the Southeast where some of the thunderstorms could become severe.
The Weather Prediction Center has a Slight Risk of excessive rainfall forecast for the eastern Carolinas for today.
The low pressure center that forms and intensifies along the southern front is forecast to track up the East Coast and reach southern New England by early on Sunday.
Areas from central Appalachians into southern New England are expected to see a period of moderate to occasionally heavy rain later today into early Sunday as the low pressure center passes just to the southeast.
Farther inland, colder air wrapping around the intensifying storm will support wet snow across northern New England during the same time period.
This will be followed by lake-effect snows across the lower Great Lakes into Monday morning when colder air pours in behind the big low.
Strong and gusty winds will expand and then engulf the entire northeastern U.S.
as the big low intensifies further and begins to exit into the Canadian Maritimes by Monday morning.
In the wake of the storminess in the East, high pressure will take over the entire central and southern U.S.
with dry conditions persisting into the new work week.
The dry weather will extend into much of the western U.S. as well.
However, moisture associated with the next Pacific system is forecast to reach the Pacific Northwest in a hurry today in the form of lower-elevation rain and mountain snow for rather high elevations.
More systems arriving from the Pacific will result in frequent rounds of precipitation persisting across the western portions of Washington, Oregon, and down into northern California.
The Cascades and higher terrain of northern California will likely receive a couple more feet of new snow through Monday.
Temperatures will generally be cooler than normal across the South but above normal across the North.
The East will be milder than normal today ahead of the intensifying low pressure system before colder air surges into the region on Sunday.
Temperatures across the West will average near normal. ■
Modified arctic air combined with a moisture-laden area of low pressure along the Gulf Coast will continue to allow for a broad area of winter weather impacts from the Lower Mississippi Valley to the Southeast today into early Saturday morning.