Short Range Forecast Discussion NWS Weather Prediction Center College Park MD 439 AM EDT Wed Oct 28 2015 Valid 12Z Wed Oct 28 2015 - 12Z Fri Oct 30 2015 ...Widespread rainfall expected for the northeastern states... ...Unsettled weather in store for the western third of the nation... A broad upper trough anchoring the Great Plains/Mississippi Valley region will continue to transport abundant moisture into the eastern third of the country. This enhanced Gulf moisture combined with sufficient lift from embedded disturbances within the upper trough will support widespread rainfall over the northeastern United States. The WPC precipitation forecast indicates the heaviest amounts should be along the I-95 corridor stretching from the Upper Mid-Atlantic into New England. 2 to 3 inches of rainfall are possible through Friday morning across these regions. However, conditions should drastically improve by Thursday evening as a strong cold front exits the Eastern Seaboard. A strengthening pressure gradient will support rather breezy conditions, particularly across the Great Lakes and New England which will reside closer to the deepening area of low pressure. Within the aformentioned upper trough, a rather potent upper low will drop down from southern Saskatchewan. This particular feature should be convective in nature given favorable vertical temperature profiles. The air mass may be cold enough to support a period of snow showers which may produce an inch or two of accumulations over sections of northern Minnesota, Wisconsin, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Elsewhere, amplified Pacific flow will bring a period of sustained onshore trajectories to the Pacific Northwest. Orographic lift across the coastal ranges will support localized heavier rainfall amounts with the best focus across the Olympics. Gradually all of this Pacific energy is forecast to migrate inland spreading widespread precipitation to interior locales. Some of this precipitation may be wintry in nature over sections of the Wasatch, Tetons, Bitterroots, and Central Rockies. As the upper trough begins to amplify toward the southwestern states, some of this unsettled weather will begin to affect the Four Corners and southern High Plains by Thursday. Rubin-Oster Graphics available at www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/basicwx/basicwx_wbg.php