Extended Forecast Discussion
NWS Weather Prediction Center College Park MD
255 AM EDT Tue May 24 2022
Valid 12Z Fri May 27 2022 - 12Z Tue May 31 2022
...Weather Pattern Overview...
A large scale upper trough with a possible embedded closed low
will be crossing the eastern U.S. through Friday and into
Saturday, and this will sustain a surface cold front that should
exit the East Coast by the weekend. Meanwhile, another trough
enters the northwestern U.S. by the end of the week with a brief
upper ridge ahead of it across the Rockies and the High Plains.
Models suggest this trough will deepen as it crosses the West this
weekend with surface cyclogenesis across the northern Plains this
weekend. In response to the digging upper trough, an upper ridge
should build across the eastern U.S. along with warmer
temperatures. This general amplified pattern is forecast to
persist into early next week.
...Model Guidance and Preferences...
The 00Z model guidance is trending more towards a slower and
potentially closed upper low solution across the Ohio Valley for
the Friday-Saturday time period, with the past few runs of the GFS
consistently on the slower side of the model consensus. The CMC
is now on the faster side and has less of a closed low signal
compared to the ECMWF/GFS/UKMET. Therefore, the WPC forecast
through Saturday focused more towards the ECMWF/CMC/UKMET as a
starting point. Out West, the guidance shows good timing
agreement on the initial shortwave into the West late this week,
but differ with the evolution into the weekend, with the GFS
stronger and the CMC/ECMWF a little slower. The WPC forecast
trended towards the ensemble means for the second half of the
period to account for this uncertainty and generally shows good
continuity with the previous WPC forecast as well.
...Sensible Weather/Threat Highlights...
The majority of the heavy rainfall should be over by Friday,
although a corridor of showers and storms is expected across the
East Coast states ahead of a weakening cold front. There is the
potential for some repeated rounds of convection with heavy rain
across portions of the Carolinas based on some of the latest model
guidance, but right now the potential for any flooding appears
marginal. Patchy areas of heavy rainfall are also possible across
portions of the Northeast, although the system should be more
progressive here. By this weekend, showers and storms increase in
coverage across the Northern Plains and Upper Midwest in response
to a developing low pressure system over the north-central U.S.
Some late season high elevation snow is also possible across the
Northern Rockies for the Sunday and Monday time period.
Temperatures will warm up considerably across the Plains by the
end of the week with highs reaching well into the 90s from Kansas
to the Gulf Coast, and some low-mid 100s across western Texas.
The heat builds eastward to include the Ohio Valley and eventually
the East Coast through the weekend and into early next week,
compliments of the building upper ridge and southerly flow ahead
of the storm system over the Plains. Much cooler weather arrives
for the Pacific Northwest by Friday, and the below normal
temperatures encompass the Northern Rockies and Northern Plains as
the upper trough moves in behind the cold front.
Hamrick
Additional 3-7 Day Hazard information can be found on the WPC
medium range hazards outlook chart at:
https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/threats/threats.php
WPC medium range 500mb heights, surface systems, weather grids,
quantitative precipitation, experimental excessive rainfall
outlook, winter weather outlook probabilities and heat indices are
at:
https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/medr/5dayfcst500_wbg.gif
https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/medr/5dayfcst_wbg_conus.gif
https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/5km_grids/5km_gridsbody.html
https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/qpf/day4-7.shtml
https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/#page=ero
https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/wwd/pwpf_d47/pwpf_medr.php?day=4
https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/heat_index.shtml