Short Range Forecast Discussion NWS Weather Prediction Center College Park MD 321 AM EST Fri Jan 09 2015 Valid 12Z Fri Jan 09 2015 - 12Z Sun Jan 11 2015 ...Bitter cold will continue from the Plains to the Eastern Seaboard... ...Snow is expected to pile up downwind of the Lower Great Lakes... ...Frozen precipitation will be possible for portions of Texas this weekend... Bitter cold will continue beneath a broad trough carved out over the eastern half of the Nation late this week. Temperatures from the Plains to the Eastern Seaboard will be 15 to even 20 degrees below normal...meaning daytime highs will struggle to climb out of single digits across portions of the Upper Midwest...Ohio Valley...and interior New England Friday and Saturday. To add to the cold...light snows will be possible with a disturbance crossing the Northeast on Friday...and in the system's wake...a fresh surge of Arctic air advecting in over warmer lake waters will ramp up snow showers across the Great Lakes region. Lake effect snow warnings have been posted for locations downwind of Lake Erie and Ontario...where isolated areas could measure snowfall in feet. Energy lifting out of northern Mexico...combined with moisture returning from the Western Gulf...will produce a wide swath of precipitation extending from Texas into portions of the Lower Mississippi Valley. Any heavy or even moderate rain should stay offshore; However...the warm gulf air will be overrunning an Arctic airmass in place...leading to the possibility for some sleet or freezing rain within the northern edge of the precipitation shield. A series of weak and unorganized systems moving inland over the western U.S. will bring light rain and higher elevation to locations from the Pacific Coast to the Rockies. Gerhardt Graphics available at www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/basicwx/basicwx_wbg.php