Short Range Forecast Discussion NWS Weather Prediction Center College Park MD 505 PM EDT Mon Mar 24 2014 Valid 00Z Tue Mar 25 2014 - 00Z Thu Mar 27 2014 ...Spring put on hold for much of the central and eastern U.S.... ...Blizzard conditions possible with bombogenesis off the Northeast coast... ...Widespread precipitation expected with a Pacific front moving inland over the western U.S.... ...Shower and thunderstorm activity will be on the increase across Texas... Another Arctic high sliding down from western Canada and moving in over the central and eastern U.S. will keep temperatures well below normal across several locations east of the Rockies early this week. In addition to the cold...light snows will be possible with energy embedded in the flow aloft...which is expected to swing through the Middle/Upper Mississippi Valley Monday evening and into the northern Mid-Atlantic region by Tuesday morning. Showers and thunderstorms will continue to develop to the north of a frontal boundary stalled out over the northern Gulf of Mexico Monday evening...at the leading edge of an initial shot of cold air that plunged through the central and eastern U.S. this past weekend. A surface low developing along the front will steadily track northeastward away from Florida's Atlantic coast Monday night into Tuesday...and precipitation across the southern tier should lift northward across the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic states. As the low continues its track up the Eastern Seaboard on Tuesday...the combination of the energy aloft swinging through the Mid-Atlantic region and a strong temperature gradient at the surface will allow the storm to undergo rapid cyclogenesis...or bomb out. By Wednesday morning...a 960 MB surface low is expected off the New England coast...which would be a 48 MB drop in 24 hours. The low should track far enough offshore to keep precipitation confined to the coastal regions. However; the combination of snow and the strong winds surrounding the deep cyclone could lead to blizzard conditions for some of the coastal areas of New England. Widespread precipitation is expected with a Pacific front moving inland over the Western U.S. early this week. Initially...the majority of precipitation will fall as snow...but as temperatures and snow levels drop behind the front...accumulating snows will be possible along the higher elevations of the Cascades...Sierra Nevada...and Central/Northern Rockies. Shower and thunderstorm activity will be on the rise across Texas Tuesday night into Wednesday as a piece of southern stream energy lifts through aloft and moisture increases across the region from return flow out of the western Gulf. Gerhardt Graphics available at www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/basicwx/basicwx_wbg.php