Short Range Forecast Discussion NWS Weather Prediction Center College Park MD 355 PM EST Tue Mar 3 2015 Valid 00Z Wed Mar 4 2015 - 00Z Fri Mar 6 2015 ***Major storm system and cold front from the Rockies to East Coast*** ***Quite cold by the end of the week east of the Rockies*** A multi-faceted winter storm will make its trek across the country over the next couple of days. A strong cold front intercepting a warm and humid air mass from the Gulf of Mexico will set the stage for widespread precipitation to develop from the southern Rockies, all the way to the southern New England coast. There will be two main episodes of weather along with boundary. The first round will feature a surface low that tracks northward over the Great Lakes and into southern Canada, and this will result in much warmer temperatures from the Deep South to the Ohio Valley and Mid-Atlantic region. Warm air advection in the warm sector of this system will result in rain being the dominant precipitation type, with any wintry precipitation confined well to the north over Michigan and interior New England. Thunderstorms are also likely across Texas and eastward to the Southeast U.S. Locally heavy rainfall will be possible. The second episode will be a wave of low pressure that develops along the cold front that tracks across the Deep South. This time, there will be much more cold air available, and significant moisture over-running the advancing cold air will likely lead to widespread sleet and freezing rain from the southern Plains to Tennessee and the southern Appalachians. On the northern edge of the precipitation shield, a late-season snowstorm is becoming increasingly probable from the Ohio Valley to the Mid-Atlantic region on Wednesday night and Thursday, with winter storm watches and warnings already in effect. After this precipitation departs the region late on Thursday, another round of very cold weather can be expected to close out the work week. D. Hamrick Graphics available at www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/basicwx/basicwx_wbg.php