Extended Forecast Discussion
NWS Weather Prediction Center College Park MD
253 AM EDT Sun Aug 14 2022
Valid 12Z Wed Aug 17 2022 - 12Z Sun Aug 21 2022
...Excessive heat threat from interior California through the
Northwest/north-central Intermountain West this week...
...Monsoonal heavy rain threat continues for the Southwest and
south-central Great Basin/Rockies this week.
...New England coastal storm threat Wednesday/Thursday...
...Overview...
Upper ridge building over the West/Northwest will produce an
excessive heat pattern over the region this week. Farther south,
the persistent ridge and less certain embedded impulses will also
continue to support widespread monsoonal moisture streaming into
an unsettled Southwest and south-central Great Basin/Rockies. The
downstream digging of shortwaves/height falls to the lee of the
ridge will periodically reinforce upper diffluent flow down over
the central U.S. before feeding into a slow-to-depart closed low
over the Northeast. There is a growing threat for New England
coastal low development Wednesday-Thursday.
...Guidance Evaluation/Predictability Assessment...
The WPC medium range product suite was primarily derived from a
composite of reasonably well clustered guidance from the 12 UTC
ECMWF/UKMET/Canadian and the 01 UTC National Blend of Models (NBM)
for Wednesday/Thursday. This solution has solid GEFS/ECMWF
ensemble support for this time frame while the last few runs of
the GFS have in particular not provided run to run consistent
guidance for potential New England coastal system development and
track. The 12 UTC ECMWF solution overall stays best clustered with
the ensemble means and NBM Friday into next weekend, so used that
blend to provide detail consistent with predictability amid slowly
growing CONUS forecast spread. Targeted forecaster driven changes
to NBM QPF were to mainly increase the QPF signature over the
Upper Midwest through the period given dynamic support
aloft/frontal passage and over the Northeast with the slow closed
upper low and coastal storm threat.
...Weather/Hazards Highlights...
As the upper ridge expands over the West/Northwest this week,
expect a heat wave with daytime/overnight temperature 10-20F above
normal. These temperatures are likely to produce some record
daytime and overnight values. Meanwhile, below normal highs are
expected in the east-central U.S. behind a main front. Given
rainfall and cloudiness over the Southwest and south-central Great
Basin/Rockies, maximum temperatures there should also tend to be
below normal.
Meanwhile, a large swath of the West have seen persistent
monsoonal moisture over the past couple of months, and this week
will continue that pattern as anomalously high moisture streams
focuses into the Southwest and south-central Great Basin/Rockies
in conjunction with small-scale shortwave energy to produce rain
and thunderstorms, particularly in the afternoon and evening
hours. A WPC experimental medium range Slight Risk of excessive
rainfall is in place for the south-central Rockies/High Plains
through midweek as additionally supported by digging shortwave
energy/upper diffluence and terrain lift. In this pattern,
convective activity will persist through later week/next weekend
there while also increasingly spreading downstream over the
Southern Plains.
Elsewhere, mid-later week convective clusters should be efficent
rainfall producers within the deeply moist precipitable water
values of the Lower Mississippi Valley/Gulf Coast states given
upstream history and thunderstorms will also spread and organize
across the Southeast with wavy and slow moving frontal boundaries
in a moist pooled airmass underneath the favorable right entrance
region of the upper jet. Meanwhile, a threat of a multi-day rain
and wind event is increasing for much of the coastal Northeast,
from New Jersey up to Maine Wednesday into Thursday with coastal
cyclogenesis ahead of a closed upper low. Periods of heavy
wrap-around rains are also a distinct possibility over eastern New
England. There is also a developing opportunity for organized
convection from the Dakotas/Upper Midwest to the Great Lakes with
the late week/weeeknd digging of shortwave energy and a slowly
progressive lead frontal passage.
Schichtel
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