Short Range Forecast Discussion NWS Weather Prediction Center College Park MD 234 PM EST Fri Dec 12 2014 Valid 00Z Sat Dec 13 2014 - 00Z Mon Dec 15 2014 ...Heavy rain and mountain snow expected across California... ...System to maintain strength and migrate across the southern Rockies and High Plains later this weekend... This energetic upper-level trough will pack strong winds in advance of the Pacific cold front this evening across western Utah and northwest Arizona. Wind Advisories are in effect for gusts at/above 45 mph. Behind the cold front, an unstable atmosphere will promote numerous showers for nearly all the West Coast and occasional snow showers for the higher elevations of the Cascades, Siskiyous, Sierra and interior mountain ranges of the western Great Basin. The system is expected to migrate across the Four Corners region on Saturday and Saturday night, then eject into the the High Plains of southwest Kansas-Texas Panhandle on Sunday morning. The storm system will have the potential to produce more strong winds in the Plains---heavy snow and strong wind in the Southern Rockies and upper Rio Grande Valley. The system will be intense---and may produce scattered showers and a few thunderstorms in southern Plains and snowy conditions along the central Colorado to western Kansas portion of the I-70 corridor. In the Northeast, a persistent upper-level circulation will remain quasi-stationary off the coast of Nova Scotia through the weekend. Its presence---allowing for a brisk northwest wind and scattered snow shower forecast across a large portion of New England and downwind of the eastern Great Lakes. The brisk northwest and north wind will likely make its way into the Piedmont and Southeast during the weekend. Vojtesak Graphics available at www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/basicwx/basicwx_wbg.php