Short Range Forecast Discussion NWS Weather Prediction Center College Park MD 500 PM EDT Sun Aug 03 2014 Valid 00Z Mon Aug 04 2014 - 00Z Wed Aug 06 2014 ...Good chance of heavy rain continues along the Carolina coast... ...Organized areas of showers and thunderstorms spreading north into the Great Basin and parts of the drought-stricken region of California... A persistent upper-level trough combined with a stationary coastal front continues to keep the Eastern Seaboard under a good chance of rain and embedded thunderstorms. Southwesterly flow aloft continues to draw moisture up the coast while weak low pressure centers form along the stalled front. Coastal areas of the Carolinas should get the highest chance of rain during the next couple of days. By late Monday into Tuesday, a better-defined low pressure center is forecast to form near the South Carolina coast while the strengthening Tropical Storm Bertha is expected to pass safely off the Atlantic coast. The new coastal low is forecast to steadily move out to sea later on Tuesday, bringing the persistent rain to an end along the East Coast. The central U.S. west of the Appalachians will continue to enjoy fine and slightly cooler than normal temperatures. A cold front will slowly head south across the northern Plains with a chance of showers and thunderstorms moving into the Ohio Valley by Tuesday. The Gulf coast and Florida will continue to feature isolated to scattered thunderstorms. Out west, an upper-level low situated over the Desert Southwest has served as a triggering mechanism for enhanced shower and thunderstorm activity. As the upper-level low moves slowly northward, showers and thunderstorms, some of which can be heavy, are expected to spread across the Great Basin, the central and southern Rockies, as well as into the drought-stricken region of eastern California during the next couple of days. Kong Graphics available at www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/basicwx/basicwx_wbg.php