Short Range Forecast Discussion NWS Weather Prediction Center College Park MD 245 PM EST Mon Feb 24 2020 Valid 00Z Tue Feb 25 2020 - 00Z Thu Feb 27 2020 ...A developing storm will bring heavy snow potential across portions of the Northern Plains and portions of the Mid West into the Great Lakes... ...Strengthening winds from the Southern High Plains into portions of the Southwest and southern California will increase the wild fire risk... ...Much colder temperatures to spread southeast from the Rockies into the Plains and Mississippi Valley Tuesday & Wednesday... The mid to upper level pattern across the mid section of the nation will undergo amplification over the next few days, setting the stage for a very active weather pattern across large sections of the nation. Accumulating snows will develop initially over portions of the Northern Plains Monday night into Tuesday and farther east later Tuesday, continuing into Wednesday, from the Mid West into the Great Lakes. This will support a highly impactful storm with snow totals of 4-8"+ across portions of the Northern Plains and a heavier stripe of 6-12"+ snows from far northeast Missouri, far southeast Iowa, across northern Illinois, including the Chicago Metro area, into far northwest Indiana and the southern portions of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, including the Detroit metro area. Travel will be significantly affected in these heavy snow areas, especially in the more urbanized areas from the Mid West into the Great Lakes where strengthening winds Tuesday into Wednesday will produce considerable blowing and drifting of snow along with greatly reduced visibilities. On the southeastern peripheries of this storm system, a large region of rain and thunderstorms are expected to push eastward Monday evening into early Tuesday across portions of the South into the Southeast. This will result in heavy precipitation potential and an isolated flooding threat, especially across portions of south central Georgia where ongoing moderate river flooding is already occurring. The good news with this heavy rains event is that it will be primarily to the east of portions of Mississippi and Alabama that have experienced very heavy rains and flooding recently. In the wake of the above mentioned developing snow storm from the Northern Plains into the Great Lakes, much colder air will be pushing southeastward from the Rockies and across the Plains and Mississippi Valley Tuesday and Wednesday. High temperatures Tuesday will be 15 to 20 degrees below average through the Central to Southern Rockies, eastward into the High Plains and 15 to 20 degrees below average on Wednesday across much of the Plains and Lower to Middle Mississippi Valley. Above to much above average temperatures expected across much of the West coast and Great Basin Tuesday and Wednesday with high temperatures expected to be 15-20 degrees above average. Along with the warm temperatures, increasing winds and low relative humidities will increase the fire weather threat across portions of southern California and western Arizona Tuesday into Wednesday. The fire weather threat will also increase across portions of the Southern High Plains from eastern to southern New Mexico into far west and Southwest Texas from Monday afternoon through Tuesday. Winds across these areas are expected to increase with the passage of a cold front this evening and remain strong through the day on Tuesday. This combined with lowering relative humidifies and expected dry weather will increase the wild fire threat across these areas. Oravec Graphics available at www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/basicwx/basicwx_ndfd.php