Short Range Forecast Discussion NWS Weather Prediction Center College Park MD 400 AM EDT Sat May 02 2020 Valid 12Z Sat May 02 2020 - 12Z Mon May 04 2020 ...Much of the country will have above average temperatures this weekend, with record highs possible over the southern High Plains... ...There is an elevated Fire Weather Risk across portions of the Southwest into the Southern High Plains... ...Heavy precipitation likely Saturday into Sunday from the coastal Pacific Northwest into the northern Rockies... The first weekend of May will bring above average temperatures across a large section of the nation. The core of the warmest temperatures will be from the Desert Southwest into the southern High Plains where mid and upper 90s are likely. Some locations could see record high temperatures Saturday and Sunday as temperatures soar into the lower 100s over the southern High Plains. The heat will also combine with dry and gusty winds to elevate fire danger across the region through the weekend. In contrast to the warm and dry conditions, a frontal boundary moving inland into the Pacific Northwest will produce widespread heavy precipitation from the coastal region to the Washington-Oregon Cascades, spreading into the northern Rockies on Sunday. The higher elevations will likely see wet snow continuing into Monday morning. Below average temperatures are expected to spread from west to east across the northwestern U.S. this weekend behind a Pacific cold front. By Monday morning, a low pressure wave will appear to form over the northern High Plains with rain and thunderstorms likely expanding further east into the northern and central Plains. Meanwhile, some rain and a few thunderstorms are moving across the Great Lakes as a low pressure complex moves across. The Northeast will see rain developing on Sunday night and then lingering into Monday as the low pressure system wobbles across the region. Farther to the south, a wide swath of moderate to locally heavy precipitation is expected to develop from the central Plains eastward into the Mid Mississippi Valley, Ohio Valley, central Appalachians and Mid-Atlantic in the vicinity of a trailing cold front. Kong/Oravec Graphics available at www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/basicwx/basicwx_ndfd.php