Short Range Forecast Discussion NWS Weather Prediction Center College Park MD 312 PM EST Wed Dec 03 2014 Valid 00Z Thu Dec 04 2014 - 00Z Sat Dec 06 2014 ...More rain for California... ...Cold air remains north... ...Significant rain to develop across Mississippi Valley to the Ohio/Tennessee Valleys... A succession of weather systems will continue to focus heavy rainfall especially across northern California and the western coasts of Washington and Oregon. A weakening upper level trough will give way to a frontal system moving eastward across the eastern Pacific leading to heavy rainfall and heavy snow across the High Sierra into Saturday. Several inches of additional rainfall are expected across northern California into the foothills of the Sierras. Patches of freezing rain will fall east of the Oregon Cascades as well. Cold air will move across the Midwest and New England but the coldest air will remain north of the US/Canadian border with generally mild temperatures for early December...a significant change from the below normal temperatures experienced during much of November. As high pressure moves north of New England...cool air will drain southward again along the eastern slopes of the Appalachians with a small threat of some freezing rain from the interior of Virginia northeastward into central Pennsylvania. A weak upper level disturbance will move across the Southwestern states bringing showers and some mountain snows across the Southwest on Thursday. As this system moves east northeastward...Gulf moisture will be drawn into this system and rain will develop and expand across the Southern Plains into the lower to mid Mississippi Valley and then northeastward into the Tennessee and Ohio Valleys on Friday into early Saturday. Some of the rain will become locally heavy and amounts over a wide area may approach and exceed 1 inch across the area. High pressure will again build across the Northern Plains but the coldest air again will likely remain north of the US/Canadian border. Kocin Graphics available at www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/basicwx/basicwx_wbg.php