Short Range Forecast Discussion NWS Weather Prediction Center College Park MD 359 PM EST Mon Jan 06 2014 Valid 00Z Tue Jan 07 2014 - 00Z Thu Jan 09 2014 ...Bitter cold will usher into the eastern U.S.... ...Conditions will remain favorable for significant snows downwind of the Great Lakes... ...Dangerously low temperatures and wind chills should begin to moderate across the north central U.S.... The bitter cold that spread over the central U.S. this weekend will usher into the eastern third of the Nation...behind an arctic boundary exiting off the Atlantic Seaboard Monday evening. The anomalous airmass...originating in Siberia...will keep temperatures more than 20 degrees below normal on Tuesday. These temperatures...combined with strong and gusty winds...will make for frigid conditions across a large portion of the eastern half of the Nation. Additionally...the strong winds over warmer lake waters should keep conditions favorable for significant snows downwind of the Great Lakes. Dangerously cold conditions over the northern Plains and Upper Midwest should start to improve as temperatures begin to moderate across the Nation's midsection. Farther south...a weak piece of energy streaking through aloft...combined with increasing Gulf moisture...will foster scattered showers across East Texas by Wednesday morning. Precipitation will make a return to the northwest corner of the Country as an upper ridge breaks down and a series of weak Pacific systems move onshore. Widespread light showers are expected across the Pacific Northwest...Intermountain West...and Northern Rockies...and favored orographics should produce some accumulating snows along the upslope side of the Cascades and Northern Rockies. Gerhardt Graphics available at www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/basicwx/basicwx_wbg.php