Short Range Forecast Discussion NWS Weather Prediction Center College Park MD 348 PM EST Wed Feb 25 2015 Valid 00Z Thu Feb 26 2015 - 00Z Sat Feb 28 2015 ...A wide swath of winter precipitation is expected across the Southeast and southern Mid-Atlantic states... ...A fresh batch of Arctic air will surge through the central U.S.... ...Heavy rain and mountain snow is in store for the Pacific Northwest... A surface low spinning in the northern Gulf of Mexico will raise havoc across the Southeast and southern Mid-Atlantic states while it lifts towards the Carolina coast Wednesday night into Thursday. An abundance of warm and moist Gulf of Mexico air surging northward ahead of the low will fuel widespread precipitation as it overruns an Arctic airmass in place over the eastern U.S.. Conditions should stay cold enough to support a swath of accumulating snow extending from northern Alabama to the Virginia and North Carolina coasts. Marginal temperatures to the south of the snow should lead to an axis of sleet and freezing rain. The surface low and associated winter precipitation will race towards the Canadian Maritimes Thursday afternoon...but not before clipping coastal New England with some light snow. Also...showers and thunderstorms will be possible with the trailing cold front as it pushes through Florida. A fresh batch of Arctic air will continue to plunge through the central U.S. as another strong surface high slides down from Canada. A cold front at the leading edge of the frigid airmass will trigger light snow showers while it presses from the Middle Mississippi Valley to the central Appalachians. Flow into the terrain should force some upslope snow along the Rockies...and weak impulses aloft should help enhance amounts over the central to southern Rockies and adjacent High Plains. Conditions will become increasingly wet over the West the next few days as vigorous energy aloft dives southward down the British Columbia coast. Pacific moisture streaming inland with this system will fuel soaking rain and accumulating mountain snow over western Washington Wednesday night...which should shift south over western Oregon on Thursday. Gerhardt Graphics available at www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/basicwx/basicwx_wbg.php