Short Range Forecast Discussion NWS Weather Prediction Center College Park MD 409 PM EDT Fri Apr 05 2019 Valid 00Z Sat Apr 06 2019 - 00Z Mon Apr 08 2019 ...More unsettled weather moving across the western U.S. through the weekend... ...Strong to severe thunderstorms forecast to move across the southern Plains toward the lower Mississippi Valley through the weekend... ...Rain along the East Coast through tonight as wintry weather moves into northern New England... ...Showers and thunderstorms expected to spread into the Ohio Valley on Sunday... An active weather pattern over the Northeast Pacific will continue to bring unsettled weather across a large portion of the western U.S. as a series of frontal systems move through the region. This will keep a good chance of rain along the West Coast through the weekend, as higher elevation snow and lower elevation rain spread across the Intermountain and the Great Basin, followed by the northern and central Rockies through Saturday. The heaviest precipitation over the next few days is expected to fall from northern California northward through the coastal ranges and Cascades of Oregon and Washington, with lesser amounts elsewhere across the Intermountain West. Flood watches have been posted across portions of this area. An upper-level trough will push across the southern Rockies tonight before entering the southern Plains on Saturday. This will trigger the next round of thunderstorms to move across Texas ahead of a dry line on Saturday. Some of these thunderstorms are expected to be severe. Farther north, the same upper-level trough combining with instabilities will trigger scattered thunderstorms over the central to northern Plains on Saturday as a cold front approaches from the north. Meanwhile, scattered thunderstorms can be expected in the Southeast through the next couple of days due to a front languishing across the region. Moisture ahead of low pressure waves supported by a disturbance aloft will gradually push the rain off the East Coast through tonight into Saturday morning. Within its northern periphery, snow is expected to move across northern New England. The precipitation should move off the East Coast during the day on Saturday as a low pressure center is forecast to move out of North Carolina and out to sea. By Sunday, the next system should exit the western U.S. and enter the southern Plains. This will trigger the next round of thunderstorms near the Texas coast where heavy rain may develop near a coastal front. The showers and thunderstorms will then expand toward the north and east into the Ohio Valley and the Great Lakes ahead of a low pressure system moving across the northern Plains. Kong/Roth Graphics available at www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/basicwx/basicwx_ndfd.php