Short Range Forecast Discussion NWS Weather Prediction Center College Park MD 450 AM EDT Thu Oct 31 2013 Valid 12Z Thu Oct 31 2013 - 12Z Sat Nov 02 2013 ...Severe weather and flash flooding will remain a threat ahead of a cold front edging through Central U.S. on Thursday... ...A rapidly deepening cyclone will bring strong and gusty winds to the Great Lakes and New England on Friday... Numerous showers and thunderstorms will continue to breakout ahead of a cold front edging eastward through the Central U.S. on Thursday. An abundance of Gulf moisture getting funneled northward ahead of the slow moving boundary will fuel heavy rains within developing storms and make flash flooding a concern...especially from East Texas into the Middle Mississippi Vally. Severe weather will also be a possibility with this system. On Friday...the front will start to pick up the pace as it crosses the Appalachians and pushes out into the Atlantic. Showers and thunderstorms will still fire up ahead of the boundary...but the widespread flash flooding and severe weather threat should diminish. However...before the front clears the Eastern Seaboard a surface low along the boundary is expected to rapidly intensify while lifting through the Great Lakes early Friday. The deepening cyclone will bring strong and gusty winds across the Great Lakes and Interior New England...and the high winds should also lead to some lake enhanced showers. Upstream...a pair of Pacific systems will bring precipitation into the northwestern corner of the Country. The first will weaken while moving inland on Thursday...resulting in only light and scattered showers across the Pacific Northwest and along the Northern Rockies. A second...stronger...system approaching the coast will bring steadier rains...with high elevations snows...into the Pacific Northwest by the end of the forecast period. Strong surface ridging setting up over the Central Great Basin should keep the rest of the West precipitation free Thursday and Friday. Gerhardt Graphics available at www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/basicwx/basicwx_wbg.php