Short Range Forecast Discussion NWS Weather Prediction Center College Park MD 230 PM EST Thu Feb 22 2024 Valid 00Z Fri Feb 23 2024 - 00Z Sun Feb 25 2024 ...Pleasantly mild across most of the country before a surge of cold air reaches the Great Lakes on Friday and down the East Coast on Saturday... ...Showers and thunderstorms over the Ohio Valley will reach the Appalachians and the Mid-South Thursday night before moving through the East Coast on Friday... ...A quick round of light snow expected to move across the Midwest, Ohio Valley, and then the southern Appalachians on Saturday... A relatively quiet weather pattern is in store across the U.S. The eastern U.S. will be the main area where precipitation will be found for the next couple of days as a pair of low pressure waves forming along a front are forecast to move east and northeast through the East Coast. Locations from the Ohio Valley to the Mid-South, across the Southeast and into northern Florida will see showers and thunderstorms passing through from tonight through Friday. Temperatures will be cold enough to support mixed rain and snow across the interior sections of New England tonight and into Friday with a couple of inches of snow accumulation expected. The rain and snow are forecast to taper off along the East Coast Friday night as the main front togther with the low pressure waves steadily move into the Atlantic. It will feel more like March and early April across much of the nation to close out the week, especially across the Plains and Midwest where highs could easily be 10-20 degrees above late February averages. Widespread 60s and 70s will be common from Texas to the Deep South into Friday. A return to reality arrives in time for the weekend as a cold front from central Canada brings more January-like readings into the Great Plains on Friday before surging into the East Coast on Saturday. A clipper system forming along the cold front on Saturday is expected to deliver a quick round of light snow from the Midwest to the Ohio Valley, and then into the southern Appalachians. Elsewhere across the continental U.S., a dry weather pattern is expected to prevail through Saturday apart from a few snow showers across portions of the central and northern Rockies. Farther south, elevated fire weather conditions are forecast by the Storm Prediction Center across portions of southwestern Texas through tonight owing to dry downslope winds from the southern Rockies. Across the Pacific Northwest, moisture well ahead of a low pressure system moving into the Gulf of Alaska is forecast to begin bringing snow into the northern Cascades and some light rain near the coast on Saturday. Kong/Hamrick Graphics available at https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/basicwx/basicwx_ndfd.php