Short Range Forecast Discussion NWS Weather Prediction Center College Park MD 256 PM EST Tue Dec 15 2015 Valid 00Z Wed Dec 16 2015 - 00Z Fri Dec 18 2015 ...Widespread snow expected with a storm tracking from the Central Plains to the Upper Midwest... ...Rain and thunderstorms possible ahead of a cold front pressing from the Lower Mississippi Valley to the Southeast coast... ...Heavy rains and mountain snows should return to the Pacific Northwest... Strong winds and a swath of accumulating snow are expected with a surface low while it lifts northeastward out of Colorado Tuesday night and tracks through the Upper Midwest on Wednesday. Farther south...precipitation will initially be limited along the trailing cold front. However...heavy rain and thunderstorms will become increasingly numerous along the front Wednesday and Thursday while it presses from the Lower Mississippi Valley to the Southeast coast and taps into additional Gulf moisture. Elsewhere across the Nation...heavy snows over northern Maine should begin to diminish Tuesday night as a deep surface low pulls farther away from the coast. Also...after a brief lull in activity...heavy rains and mountain snows will return to the Pacific Northwest as another stream of Pacific moisture surges inland on Thursday. Gerhardt Graphics available at www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/basicwx/basicwx_wbg.php