Short Range Forecast Discussion NWS Weather Prediction Center College Park MD 400 AM EDT Wed Apr 26 2023 Valid 12Z Wed Apr 26 2023 - 12Z Fri Apr 28 2023 ...Heavy rain and severe weather expected to spread across portions of the Central/Southern Plains today; then across the lower Mississippi Valley and the central to eastern Gulf Coast on Thursday... ...Heavy wet snow over central Colorado is expected to taper off later today but more wet snow is expected by Thursday night... ...Below average temperatures for large portions of the nation to the east of the Rockies, while above average temperatures expand across the West... ...Elevated fire weather danger across the southern Rockies to southern High Plains; slight risk of severe thunderstorms for central Florida today... A low pressure system developing over the southern High Plains will spread showers and thunderstorms out across the central/southern Plains today. The highest chance of heavy rain today is expected to be in the cool sector to the north of a stationary front from southeastern Colorado across the Texas panhandle and into much of Oklahoma. Severe thunderstorms accompanied by pockets of heavy rainfall are expected farther south across northern Texas ahead of the low pressure system and along the stationary front. By Thursday, the showers and storms will push eastward into the lower to mid-Mississippi Valley, with the highest chance of severe weather along the central Gulf Coast. The excessive rainfall threat is forecast to be marginal across the Deep South and into the Tennessee Valley. By early Friday, moderately heavy rain is expected to reach into the Ohio Valley, the Appalachians and down into the Southeast. Meanwhile, ongoing heavy wet snow on the backside of this storm system across central Colorado is forecast to taper off as the system moves farther away. However, another cold upper trough is forecast to plunge southward into the northern Rockies on Thursday, reaching central Rockies by Friday morning. This system will bring a quick round of mountain snow and lower elevation rain from north to south across the northern and central Rockies and nearby High Plains beginning on Thursday. The Colorado Rockies and nearby Front Range will likely see another round of wet snow, possibly locally heavy, by Thursday night into Friday morning. Meanwhile, scattered showers are also expected to spread into the northern Plains as a low pressure wave develops along a front. Across Florida, a weak shortwave trough moving over sea breeze boundaries today is expected to produce scattered thunderstorms, with hail and/or damaging wind gusts possible within stronger storms. Continued troughing east of the Rockies will result in below average temperatures over the next few days. High temperatures today will be 15-25 degrees below average across portions of southeastern Colorado, Kansas and Oklahoma, on the backside of the aforementioned Southern Plains storm system. This will result in high temperature readings in the upper 40s to 50s for many parts of the Central/Southern Plains. Temperatures will moderate a bit on Thursday over those areas. An upper ridge will continue to bring anomalous warmth to the West over the next several days with high temperatures reaching 15-25 degrees above normal in many places. Dry and windy conditions will keep an elevated fire danger for portions of New Mexico into western Texas for the next couple of days. Kong/Kebede Graphics available at https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/basicwx/basicwx_ndfd.php