Short Range Forecast Discussion NWS Weather Prediction Center College Park MD 307 AM EDT Tue Apr 16 2019 Valid 12Z Tue Apr 16 2019 - 12Z Thu Apr 18 2019 ...Seasonably cool with gusty winds for New England today in wake of departing storm system... ...Severe thunderstorms and flash flooding will be possible for portions of the Southern Plains on Wednesday... Relatively quiet weather will be in store for the lower 48 today as the nation will be between storm systems. A strong low pressure center in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence will continue to slowly track off toward the east through tonight. The main affect of this system on weather in New England will be for gusty winds today with peak gusts in the 25 to 35 mph range. Scattered rain and snow showers will also be found across far northern New England with seasonably cool temperatures. The other system is currently moving moving across the West Coast this morning and will continue to move east throughout the day. Expect periods of steady rain and higher elevation snow for the Intermountain West into tonight. A portion of the upper level system will track southeastward across the Southwest tonight while strengthening with a northern portion moving into the Northern Plains. Conditions will be favorable for the development and spreading of wildfires today from eastern New Mexico into far western Texas on the dry side of a dryline given a combination of low relative humidities and gusty winds. Scattered showers and thunderstorms will break out overnight tonight from Nebraska/South Dakota eastward toward the Upper Midwest to the north of a warm front and advancing low pressure center tracking toward Wisconsin. Farther south, a round of strong to severe thunderstorms is expected from Kansas and Oklahoma down into Texas for Wednesday. The Storm Prediction Center is forecasting an Enhanced Risk for severe storms on Wednesday from southeastern Oklahoma into far western Arkansas and into northern and central Texas. A Slight Risk extends as far north as Iowa. Heavy rain will also be possible from these storms with a Slight Risk for flash flooding in place from eastern Texas into western Louisiana and much of Arkansas. Some of these same locations experienced heavy rain over the past week and could be more sensitive to flooding from additional heavy rain from the upcoming storm system. Regarding temperatures, it will be fairly warm ahead of the western storm system to affect the Great Plains, with high temperatures today in the 70s and 80s from the central and southern High Plains, through the Midwest and to the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast both today and Wednesday. Cooler than average temperatures will be seen in the wake of the storm system, over much of the West today and into the Four Corners region for Wednesday. Otto Graphics available at www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/basicwx/basicwx_ndfd.php