Short Range Forecast Discussion NWS Weather Prediction Center College Park MD 434 AM EDT Thu Aug 24 2017 Valid 12Z Thu Aug 24 2017 - 12Z Sat Aug 26 2017 ...Tropical Storm Harvey continue to strengthen while bringing heavy rainfall in Texas by Friday... ...Heavy rainfall expected across South Florida... ...Thunderstorms will continue across the Southern Rockies... The National Hurricane Center currently has Tropical Storm Harvey in the western Gulf of Mexico. Harvey will take a northwestward track as it moves toward the Middle Texas coast while strengthening into a category 1 hurricane sometime Friday morning. Precipitation will begin to approach Deep South Texas by Friday morning--with heavier bands moving from the Middle Texas coast and Deep South Texas by Friday evening. By Saturday morning, Harvey will weaken to a tropical storm once again. However, the heavy rainfall will increase over the Middle Texas coast and will continue beyond the short term period. With Harvey moving slowly as it approaches Texas and after it makes landfall, this may give way to the potential of bringing an extreme amount of rainfall to both Deep South Texas and Southeast Texas. Flash flooding will be a threat because of this. Thus, continue monitoring both the National Hurricane Center for the official track and intensity of Harvey in addition to WPC for rainfall amounts and regions of excessive rainfall. An inverted trough will interact with deep moisture across the southern half of Florida over the next few days. This will bring showers and thunderstorms that could produce heavy rainfall--primarily in South Florida. Thunderstorm activity will ramp up by this afternoon and continue across South Florida through Thursday night and into Friday morning. By Friday afternoon, a cold front will begin pressing southward over central Florida which will aid in the continuation of thunderstorms leading into the weekend. A wavy front along the central and western Gulf Coast region will stall along these areas by this afternoon and stays put through Saturday. This boundary will act as a focal point for setting off convection across these coastal areas. The boundary will also stall across the Carolinas, which will bring heavy rainfall to coastal areas of those states. However, by early Friday morning, the front will begin to move offshore. As a result, most of the precipitation will also move off into the Atlantic. With an upper-level trough coming in from the west and sufficient moisture in place, the Southern Rockies can expect showers and thunderstorms over the next few days. A slight risk of flash flooding for this region will be in place as some of these thunderstorms will be capable of producing heavy downpours. Farther north, a cold front will move across the Pacific Northwest and Northern Rockies on Thursday--bringing light showers to these regions. As the front sweeps across the Northern High Plains, showers and thunderstorms will develop ahead of the front and will spread across the northern Plains in addition to the Upper Midwest by Saturday. Reinhart Graphics available at www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/basicwx/basicwx_ndfd.php