Short Range Forecast Discussion NWS Weather Prediction Center College Park MD 402 AM EDT Wed Sep 09 2020 Valid 12Z Wed Sep 09 2020 - 12Z Fri Sep 11 2020 ..Widespread weather impacts expected across the Western to Central U.S. over the next two days.. ...The early Season Winter Storm to continue into Wednesday across the Central Rockies into the Central High Plains with heavy snows likely... ...Heavy Rains and isolated Flash Flooding possible across portions of the Southern to Central Plains Wednesday into Thursday... ...Much Below Average Temperatures expected across the Central to Southern Plains Wednesday and Thursday... ...An Elevated to Critical Fire Weather Threat will continue into Wednesday across much of the West Coast... The early season winter storm will continue to spread snow to the Central Rockies/adjacent High Central Plains through Thursday as it slowly tracks east from the Four Corners region. Snow will be heavy at times, especially in the higher terrain. Several Winter Storm Warnings and Winter Weather Advisories are in effect from northeast Utah to southeast Wyoming and south to northern New Mexico. With the Cold Canadian airmass settling into much of the Intermountain West and north-central U.S. behind this cold front many locations from northeast Minnesota to central New Mexico have Freeze Warnings and Frost Advisories in effect. A few scattered areas across the Northwest and Great Basin also have Freeze and Hard Freeze Warnings in effect. The significantly colder airmass is helping reduce critical fire conditions across the West, however most of West coastline and adjacent counties have Red Flag Warnings in effect for part of today. Strong winds on the western side of the winter storm have brought dangerous and life threatening fire weather conditions to large portions of western U.S. from the desert Southwest, through the Great Basin, much of California into the Pacific Northwest. An elevated to critical fire weather threat will continue across much of these area through Wednesday. Diminishing winds are possible across these area by Thursday, bringing some relief to the ongoing fires and fire weather threat. The cold blast is causing temperatures to fall much below normal for early September for much of the Central and Southern Plains region, in some locations as much as 30 to 35 degrees below average. This system will begin to move more to the northeast on Thursday, with a diminishing heavy snow risk for the Central Rockies and Central High Plains. Meanwhile, heavy rain is expected for parts of Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas while may result in isolated flash flooding concerns as this progresses. WPC has highlighted part of this area as having a Slight Risk for excessive rainfall today and Thursday. Campbell Graphics available at www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/basicwx/basicwx_ndfd.php