Short Range Forecast Discussion NWS Weather Prediction Center College Park MD 458 PM EDT Tue Mar 24 2015 Valid 00Z Wed Mar 25 2015 - 00Z Fri Mar 27 2015 ...Wintry precipitation across the northern Plains into the Great Lakes... ...Severe weather expected in the southern Plains and Mississippi Valley... ...Risk of flash flooding for the Ohio Valley... Another round of wintry precipitation will make its way from the northern Rockies eastward into the Great Lakes over the short term period. As an upper level trough digs across the Plains, snow and mixed precipitation will move across the northern Plains and into the Upper Midwest by Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning. By late Tuesday night, freezing rain will approach the Upper Midwest and spread across North Dakota and Minnesota by Wednesday morning. Meanwhile, snow will fall north of the mixed precipitation and will spread across the Great Lakes region through Wednesday evening. The front associated with the upper level trough will move away from the Great Lakes and into New England. Snow will taper off the Great Lakes and will spread across New England as a result. To the south of the Upper Midwest/Great Lakes system, another front has set up along the Tennessee Valley eastward into the southern Plains. This front will get a push from an upper level disturbance and will begin to move quickly eastward. Ahead of the front, warm and very moist air will be in place thanks to the influence of the Gulf. These factors, along with enough instability in place, there could be a threat for severe weather on Wednesday and into Thursday morning /see the Storm Prediction Center for more information/. By Thursday, the cold front will stretch from Canada southward across Texas and into Mexico. This front will ignite a line of showers and thunderstorms. The risk of flash flooding will occur on Thursday through the middle Mississippi Valley through the Ohio Valley. Behind this cold front, there will be a noticeable difference in air masses as cooler and dry air spreads across the southern Plains and into the Southeast, Mississippi and Tennessee Valleys. The Pacific Northwest will have continuous rounds of showers and higher elevation snow throughout most of the short term period. The peak intensity of precipitation will occur on Wednesday as a warm front approaches the coast. However, once the upper level ridge slides across the West Coast by Thursday, this cuts off moisture across the region and most of the precipitation will stay northward across British Columbia. Fanning Graphics available at www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/basicwx/basicwx_wbg.php