Short Range Forecast Discussion NWS Weather Prediction Center College Park MD 347 AM EST Mon Dec 30 2013 Valid 12Z Mon Dec 30 2013 - 12Z Wed Jan 01 2014 ...Wet, windy and cold across Deep South Texas... ...Anomalously cold across the northern plains and upper Midwest... ...Dry with seasonal to above average temperatures continuing in the West... Wet, windy and cold conditions are expected today across Deep South Texas and the Rio Grande valley as an arctic cold front continues to drop south through the region into northern Mexico and the western Gulf of Mexico. Abundant moisture in place is expected to fuel widespread moderate to locally heavy rainfall totals across the region today. Lingering moisture and a strong coastal trough will continue to encourage showers across the region into Tue. Elsewhere, a clipper system dropping into the northern plains this morning is expected to generate mainly scattered light snows across the northern plains and upper Midwest today before moving across the Great Lakes overnight. Preceding the arrival of this system, lake effect snows producing locally heavy snow accumulations, particularly across the eastern U.P. of Michigan and northern lower Michigan, can be expected. A second system is forecast to drop into the northern Rockies and plains early Tue and is expected to produce a stripe of light snows extending from the northern Rockies to southern Minnesota and northern Iowa by New Year's Eve. Temperatures are expected to remain anomalously cold from the northern plains through the Great Lakes today and along the Mississippi Valley to the western Gulf coast, especially across North Dakota and northern Minnesota where daytime temperatures are expected to be 20-30 degrees below normal. Northwesterly winds in the wake of the aforementioned clipper system moving across the northern plains today is expected to further fortify the cold air, sending temperatures even colder on New Year's Eve. Across the West, little change is expected through the short-term period, with mainly dry conditions and seasonal to above average temperatures dominating west of the continental divide. Pereira Graphics available at www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/basicwx/basicwx_wbg.php