Short Range Forecast Discussion NWS Weather Prediction Center College Park MD 500 PM EDT Thu Apr 02 2015 Valid 00Z Fri Apr 03 2015 - 00Z Sun Apr 05 2015 ...A cold front will spread strong to severe thunderstorms along with heavy rain across the Mid/Lower Mississippi and the Ohio Valleys... ...Accumulating snowfall expected in northern New England by the weekend... A cold front moving across the mid-section of the Country will be the focus of strong to severe thunderstorms over the next couple of days. It appears that the most active weather will occur on Friday from the mid-Mississippi Valley eastward into the Ohio Valley as a low pressure center develops and moves across these areas. Strong to severe thunderstorms ahead of the low will be accompanied with heavy downpours, leading to the potential of flash flooding. By Friday night, the low is expected to move quickly across the central Appalachians, northern mid-Atlantic, and should begin to move off the New England coast by Saturday morning. As it does so, the low is forecast to intensify rapidly in the Gulf of Maine. Colder air filtering in behind the low together with moisture arriving ahead of an upper-level trough will support a period of heavier snow across northern New England on Saturday. The storm should begin to move away later on Saturday but another weaker low with light snow from the Great Lakes will approach New England. Behind the cold front, much cooler air will spread into the central and southern Plains through Friday, and into the southeastern U.S. during the weekend. Showers and thunderstorms are expected to become more scattered in nature as they spread into the Deep South by the Easter weekend. Out West, snow in the central Rockies is expected to taper off by Friday morning. A front moving onshore will bring unsettled weather across the Pacific Northwest into the Intermountain region later on Friday into early Saturday. Farther south across the drought-stricken California and the Desert Southwest, dry conditions are expected to persist through Saturday! Kong Graphics available at www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/basicwx/basicwx_wbg.php