Short Range Forecast Discussion NWS Weather Prediction Center College Park MD 323 PM EST Wed Dec 31 2014 Valid 00Z Thu Jan 01 2015 - 00Z Sat Jan 03 2015 ...Cold and snow over the Four Corners region will continue into the New Year... ...Sleet and freezing rain will be possible from the Southern Plains to the Tennessee Valley... A deep vortex spinning over the Four Corners region will allow the anomalous cold and snow to continue into New Year's day. The highest snowfall accumulations will be along the upslope side of the Colorado Rockies and Mogollon Rim...where orographic effects will help boost amounts. Snow will gradually taper off and temperatures should begin to moderate as the upper vortex slowly weakens and edges eastward late this week. Southerly winds ahead of the deep vortex inching out of the Four Corners region will pull warm and moist Gulf of Mexico air northward over an Arctic airmass in place over much of the Nation. Widespread precipitation should develop from the Southern Plains to the Tennessee Valley and Southeast Thursday and Friday. Moderate to heavy rains...with embedded thunderstorms...will be possible for locations closer to the Gulf Coast...and temperatures will be low enough to support an axis of sleet and freezing rain within the northern edge of the precipitation shield. Broad cyclonic flow will continue to produce snow showers downwind of the Great Lakes and across interior New England...especially as another Arctic boundary dropping through the northern tier crosses the region Thursday night into Friday. Gerhardt Graphics available at www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/basicwx/basicwx_wbg.php