Short Range Forecast Discussion NWS Weather Prediction Center College Park MD 409 AM EDT Wed Apr 01 2020 Valid 12Z Wed Apr 01 2020 - 12Z Fri Apr 03 2020 ...Heavy snows and cold temperatures will spread from the Northwest into the Northern Plains over the next couple of days... ...Rain and strong winds will move off the North Carolina coast later in the morning... ...A large ocean storm will keep rainy and windy weather across New England into Friday... A low pressure system will continue to rapidly deepen as it move quickly off the North Carolina coast this morning, ending the rain with subsiding winds across the region. This low pressure system is forecast to develop into a huge ocean storm while meandering off the East Coast for the next few days. Wet snow over northern Maine is expected to taper off later today as the storm intensifies further over the Atlantic. However, with a highly amplified and blocky synoptic pattern across the higher latitudes, rainy and windy conditions are expected to move back into New England from the east on Thursday and continue into Friday as the massive ocean storm is forecast to retrograde. High surfs and some beach erosion are also possible along the coast. Meanwhile, active weather is expected to progress rather slowly across the Northwest into the northern Plains for the next two days under a slow-moving upper level vortex. Multiple disturbances within this vortex will interact with an intrusion of cold air from western Canada. This complex interaction will continue to result in heavy snow along the Cascades and portions of the northern Rockies followed by an increasing chance of snow expanding northeastward across the northern Plains on Thursday and into Friday behind a cold front. A swath of mixed precipitation can also be expected preceding the snow from the northern Plains into the upper Midwest. Much below normal temperatures are expected under this weather pattern from the northern Rockies and gradually spreading across the northern Plains. Ahead of the cold front, above normal temperatures are expected in the Southwest to southern/central Plains and parts of the Mississippi Valley. Meanwhile, the Eastern Seaboard will have cool afternoons and near normal temperatures in the mornings with generally northerly winds under the influence of the western periphery of the huge ocean storm. Kong Graphics available at www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/basicwx/basicwx_ndfd.php