Short Range Forecast Discussion NWS Weather Prediction Center College Park MD 128 AM EST Wed Nov 04 2020 Valid 12Z Wed Nov 04 2020 - 12Z Fri Nov 06 2020 ...Quiet weather pattern continues with notable precipitation limited to the Northwest and Florida/Southeast Coast after Thursday... ...Record or near-record heat expected across West and Northern Plains... The last bastion of below average air remains over Maine this morning, but will be overwhelmed quickly as the above average heat from the West and Northern Plains will surge across the Midwest into the Northeast by Thursday with nearly all locations in the Lower 48 states above normal or well above normal. The heat will press record high temperatures (and overnight high minimum temperatures) across the Southwest and across the Northern Plains over the next 3 days, with some places over 30 to 40 degrees above normal. The first cyclones from the Pacific Ocean will be crossing north of the border and increase winds in the High Plains of MT into ND, elevating fire danger to Elevated per the Storm Prediction Center, today into Thursday. Additionally, the Transverse Ranges of Southern California are also at Elevated fire weather outlook. A very active Northern Pacific moisture stream continues to be directed mainly north into British Columbia, with the trailing edges of a parade of cold fronts clipping the far Pacific Northwest. This is producing the only measurable precipitation across the entire Continental U.S, across Western Washington, Northwest Oregon. While, each cold front chips away at the strong ridge over the West, it takes until late Thursday before a pattern changing upper-level trough digs southward bringing heavy rainfall across the Cascades with lowering Snow levels across the Cascades expected by Friday for high-elevation snows. This upper trof will develop a strong surface low by early Friday morning across Oregon and drop the cold front through Central toward Southern California. Return Atlantic moisture north of the stationary front will lift northward by late Thursday/Friday to produce some scattered showers across coastal Carolinas to South Florida, with the potential for heavy rainfall thunderstorms across South Florida on Friday morning. Gallina Graphics available at www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/basicwx/basicwx_ndfd.php