Short Range Forecast Discussion NWS Weather Prediction Center College Park MD 359 PM EDT Thu Oct 26 2017 Valid 00Z Fri Oct 27 2017 - 00Z Sun Oct 29 2017 ...The first significant winter storm of the season will impact the Upper Midwest along with strong winds... ...Temperatures dropping below normal across the Great Plains for Friday while spreading east of the Mississippi for the weekend.... ...Dry conditions with above normal temperatures to continue across the western U.S.... A storm system currently ongoing across northern Minnesota will continue to evolve over the next 24-36 hours as it moves into Wisconsin. Strong winds from the north will continue to bring in much colder temperatures into the northern Plains and cause a changeover from rain to rain/snow and finally snow overnight tonight for Minnesota. Accumulations will be light to locally moderate through Friday and highest across the Arrowhead region. Strong winds combined with falling snow will be a significant hindrance to travel given forecast wind gusts up to 60 mph. A secondary max of locally heavy snow is expected from the western U.P. of Michigan into northern Wisconsin to the northwest of the surface low through Saturday morning as lake enhanced snow sets up downwind of lake Superior. Showers and thunderstorms will break out along the storm system's cold front stretching from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. A broad 1 to 2 inches of rain is expected from the Ohio valley into the Tennessee valley as the boundary moves east. Behind the cold front, high temperatures will be 10 to 20 degrees below average from the Southern Plains to the Upper Mississippi valley for Friday, with these anomalies shifting east into the middle and lower Mississippi valley on Saturday. Across the eastern U.S., rain will largely come to an end by Friday morning, with the exception of extreme northern Maine where it may linger a few hours longer. East of the cold front impacting the central U.S., temperatures will rebound back above average by about 5-15 degrees from the upper Ohio valley on Friday into the Northeast for Saturday. Across the Southeast, showers and thunderstorms may become more numerous across Florida as a broad area of low pressure over the western Caribbean becomes better organized and begins to drift north early Saturday. Refer to NHC outlooks for further information on this system. The western U.S. will continue to experience the influence of upper level ridging which will have the effect of keeping the area warm and dry, especially California, Oregon and Nevada where departures from average high temperatures will range from +10 to +20 degrees through the weekend. Otto Graphics available at www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/basicwx/basicwx_ndfd.php