Short Range Forecast Discussion NWS Weather Prediction Center College Park MD 403 AM EDT Thu Jun 08 2017 Valid 12Z Thu Jun 08 2017 - 12Z Sat Jun 10 2017 ...Significant rainfall moving into the West Coast... ...A strengthening coastal storm should skirt eastern North Carolina today...possibly clipping Cape Cod Friday morning... ...Heavy rain over Florida should become more widely scattered as rain expected to depart the Southeast U.S. coast... Much of the eastern part of the country continues to be under the influence of a cool air mass with mostly cloudy skies. The upper-level low associated with this cool dome of air is forming over the central Appalachians over the central Appalachians. The surface front itself has been pushed well to the south into northern Florida and just off the Southeast U.S. coast where an elongated low pressure system is forecast to intensify rapidly later today as it moves northeastward a couple of hundred miles off the East Seaboard. This intensifying storm, reminiscence of a cold-season nor'easter, is forecast to pass east of New England Friday morning. It is possible that the storm would track slightly farther west than expected and clip Cape Cod with a brief period of wind and rain. In any case, the western fringe of the storm should clip eastern North Carolina with a period of increasing winds and rain later this morning and early afternoon before departing later today. Farther south, rain will depart the southeast U.S. coast as heavy rain over southern Florida becomes more wide scattered. But a lingering front will keep a good chance of showers and thunderstorms in the vicinity. Temperatures in the eastern U.S. will begin to recover on Friday as the storm moves further into the Canadian Maritimes later on Friday. Out West, a significant change in the weather pattern is taking shape as a large upper-level low is poised to push towards the Pacific Northwest this weekend. The first wave of moisture ahead of a strong cold front has already arrived with locally heavy rain moving into the Pacific Northwest down into the northern half of California. This will be followed by additional waves of moisture expected to move onshore Friday and into the weekend before the core of the upper low arrives. A couple of inches of rain is possible over the Pacific Northwest through Saturday morning. Some of the higher elevations from the Intermountain region into the northern Rockies could even see snow by Saturday morning. Elsewhere, a weakening front is expected to bring widely scattered showers and thunderstorms across the upper Midwest today. Meanwhile, scattered showers and thunderstorms over the central and southern High Plains today should taper off later on Friday. Kong Graphics available at www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/basicwx/basicwx_ndfd.php