Short Range Forecast Discussion NWS Weather Prediction Center College Park MD 258 AM EST Sat Dec 28 2019 Valid 12Z Sat Dec 28 2019 - 12Z Mon Dec 30 2019 ...Potent winter storm is expected across the northern Plains this weekend... A potent shortwave trough situated over the central Rockies Saturday morning will support a surface low pressure system that will track northeastward across the central and northern Plains over the weekend. This low is expected to intensify as it reaches the Upper Midwest through Sunday and become a powerful winter storm from Colorado to Minnesota. Winter storm warnings are now in effect across these areas, with the potential of 8 to 16 inches of wind blown snow from northern Nebraska to northwestern Minnesota. Blizzard conditions are likely for some of these areas. Farther to the southeast, a corridor of freezing rain and sleet is expected from central Nebraska to northern Wisconsin. Additionally, some ice accretion is likely across interior portions of the Northeast U.S. on Sunday north of the warm front. In the warm sector of the storm system, heavy rain is expected across Tennessee and northward across the Ohio Valley, and a Marginal Risk of severe thunderstorms is also depicted across parts of the Deep South and extending northward to Kentucky. Elsewhere across the continental U.S., showers will impact the Pacific Northwest as a weakening cold front approaches the region on Saturday, and additional rainfall for California on Sunday as a second storm system approaches the West Coast. Scattered showers and a few thunderstorms are likely for the Florida Peninsula with a sustained period of moist southeasterly Atlantic flow. Temperatures are expected to generally be above normal for the eastern U.S. and below normal for the Rockies and western High Plains this weekend. Hamrick Graphics available at www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/basicwx/basicwx_ndfd.php