Short Range Forecast Discussion NWS Weather Prediction Center College Park MD 301 AM EST Tue Feb 05 2019 Valid 12Z Tue Feb 05 2019 - 12Z Thu Feb 07 2019 ...Dangerous freezing rain accumulations possible from eastern Iowa, eastward across portions of the Upper Great Lakes region... ...Temperatures will continue to be well below average from Montana into the Dakotas and well above average from the Southern Plains to the East Coast... ...The beginning of a possible heavy rain/flooding pattern will set up for sections of the Ohio Valley beginning Wednesday... Active weather will continue for large sections of the country over the next few days with an ongoing Pacific storm system across the West and a strong front currently draped from the Northeast to the Southern Plains. As colder air filters into the western U.S. behind a cold front, snow levels will continue to fall for southern California today and lower for the Four Corners region for Wednesday. Heavy snow can still be expected for the Sierra Nevada range into the mountains of southern California, and eastward into the Wasatch and Colorado Rockies where over a foot of new snow is expected through Wednesday. However, precipitation intensity will be waning from west to east as the storm system works its way into the Great Plains. To the north of a strong front across the central U.S., high temperatures from Montana into northern High Plains will be generally 20 to 40 degrees below average over the next few days, with the colder air filtering south and east for Thursday. Locations ahead of the front from Oklahoma and Texas into New England and the Mid-Atlantic states will see high temperatures range between 10 and 20 degrees above average today, with temperatures closer to average on Wednesday for the Northeast but continuing to feel like spring for locations to the south. It will be near and north of this frontal boundary across the Midwest where a dangerous ice storm is expected. A wintry mix of sleet and freezing rain is expected to begin over Iowa into northern Missouri later today, spreading northeastward toward northern Illinois/southern Wisconsin into lower Michigan. Rain will pick up in intensity to the south across southern/central Missouri into the Ohio Valley. As the Pacific storm system mentioned above moves east Wednesday into Thursday, the rain/snow line will adjust north but the wintry mix of freezing rain and sleet will shift into portions of Wisconsin and Lower Michigan with heavy rain focusing across the Ohio Valley. Storm total rainfall may range between 2 to 4 inches for portions of the Ohio Valley which may cause flooding concerns. Otto Graphics available at www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/basicwx/basicwx_ndfd.php