Short Range Forecast Discussion NWS Weather Prediction Center College Park MD 307 AM EDT Wed Jul 16 2014 Valid 12Z Wed Jul 16 2014 - 12Z Fri Jul 18 2014 ...Slowly improving weather for the East Coast as cold front moves offshore. Some lingering showers and storms for eastern New England... ...Comfortable temperatures and lower humidity to cover much of the Central US and the East over the next couple days... ...Heavy rainfall is expected to develop for portions of the Central and Southern Plains with flooding possible...also with relatively cool temperatures... ...Hot weather still confined to the Far West although not as extreme as in the past few days... After several days of hot and humid weather with daily thunderstorms...a cold front will finally push eastward off the East Coast on Wednesday. While some heavy showers will linger across eastern New England...skies should clear and cooler and much drier conditions should occur across much of the Eastern US...even into the northern portions of the Southeast. Temperatures in the 70s and 80s with low humidity will be common from the Plains to the Midwest and across much of the East as high pressure builds across the area...making for a remarkably comfortable couple of days for mid July. A few showers will linger across the Midwest where temperatures could struggle to make it out of the 60s across parts of Michigan. Meanwhile...the threat for heavy rainfall will spoil the respite from the heat in the Southern Plains as an upper level disturbance, increasing moisture and a strong frontal boundary will help generate heavy rain in the relatively cool air north of the front. This means that over the next couple days...several inches of rain are possible across portions of Kansas...Oklahoma...and Arkansas with flooding a possible concern. In some areas...the heavy rains could be accompanied by temperatures in the 60s and 70s...more typical of fall or spring. Out west...the heat will not be quite as bad as in previous days but could still reach the 90s to near 100 degrees across the interior Far West as the current heat wave continues from northern California into the Pacific Northwest. When one part of the country is experiencing unusually cool weather...such as what the East is getting...it is often common that the other half of the nation pays the price with warming. For the West...that means hot and mostly dry which can exacerbate drought and fire weather conditions. Kocin Graphics available at www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/basicwx/basicwx_wbg.php