Short Range Forecast Discussion NWS Weather Prediction Center College Park MD 457 AM EDT Wed May 07 2014 Valid 12Z Wed May 07 2014 - 12Z Fri May 09 2014 ...Heavy rains and widespread severe weather will be possible with a storm system developing over the central U.S.... ...Rain and thunderstorms will continue to breakout to the north of a frontal boundary stretched through the eastern half of the Nation... ...Persistent dry and windy conditions will heighten the threat for wildfires across a large portion of the central/southern High Plains... Weather will become increasingly active across the middle of the Country as a large scale upper trough swings eastward out of the western U.S. and a surface low deepens in the lee of the Colorado Rockies. An organized axis of moderate to heavy rains with embedded strong to severe thunderstorms should develop to the north and west of the strengthening low while it steadily lifts northeastward out of the central High Plains. Falling temperatures behind this system should lead to snow well northwest of the storm...which would not only impact the higher elevations of the central to northern Rockies but also portions of the adjacent Plains. Farther south...scattered convection will be possible to the east of a dry line set up across the southern Plains Wednesday afternoon. Activity should become more organized on Thursday as a cold front emerges east of the Rockies and increasing amounts of moisture gets siphoned northward out of the western Gulf. Ample amounts of instability will allow developing storms to become strong or even severe. An east-west oriented frontal boundary stretched from the Mid-Atlantic coast to the central Plains will begin to surge northward as a warm front Wednesday and Thursday. Weak pieces of energy rippling through the flow aloft should help ignite rain and thunderstorms to the north of the boundary...impacting locations across the Upper Mississippi Valley...Great Lakes...and northern Mid-Atlantic states. Elsewhere across the Nation...widespread red flag warnings have been issued across a large portion of the central/southern High Plains... where persistent dry and windy conditions will heighten the threat for wildfires. Out West...just as rain and snow showers quiet down from the departing system entering the central U.S....a Pacific front approaching the coast will begin impacting the Pacific Northwest by early Thursday. Gerhardt Graphics available at www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/basicwx/basicwx_wbg.php