Short Range Forecast Discussion NWS Weather Prediction Center College Park MD 300 PM EST Mon Feb 26 2024 Valid 00Z Tue Feb 27 2024 - 00Z Thu Feb 29 2024 ...Heavy mountain snow with brief snow squalls across the northwestern U.S. through tonight into Tuesday... ...Moderate to heavy snow from North Dakota into northern Minnesota on Tuesday... ...Severe thunderstorms possible Tuesday evening/night from the Midwest to the Ohio Valley/Great Lakes... ...Record warmth engulfing much of the mid-section of the country will be drastically colder by Wednesday with sub-zero will chills across the northern Plains and upper Midwest... The stage is set for a dome of arctic air that has been locked up in Canada to be unleashed into the United States through the next couple of days. An amplifying upper-level trough that is instrumental in unleashing the arctic air mass in Canada for the past week will first push a cold front rapidly across the northwestern U.S. through tonight. The front will sweep across the region with rapidly falling temperatures, gusty winds, and brief periods of snow squalls across the interior Pacific Northwest, reaching into the northern Rockies by Tuesday morning. Meanwhile, the arctic air will be surging into the northern Plains in earnest tonight. A low pressure system that forms along the front will organize a swath of moderate snow across North Dakota through tonight, becoming heavy snow Tuesday morning across northern Minnesota. The low pressure system is forecast to intensify rapidly and move across the Great Lakes Tuesday night into Wednesday morning, bringing a period of snow across the region behind the storm center. Much of the mid-section of the country has been dominated by a dry and warm air mass under the influence of an expansive high pressure system lately. A large area of record warm temperatures is engulfing much of the mid-section of the country this afternoon. As the arctic air mass advances into the United States through the next couple of days, drastically colder temperatures will be ushered down the Plains on Tuesday, and then across the Great Lakes, the Ohio Valley toward the Deep South and the East Coast by Wednesday evening, with sub-zero will chills across the northern Plains by tonight reaching into the upper Midwest Wednesday morning. In addition, the cold front is forecast to become very potent, with showers and thunderstorms rapidly forming over the Ohio Valley into the lower Great Lakes Tuesday evening along with warm and gusty winds. Some of these thunderstorms are expected to become severe as well. The winds behind the front will become very strong and gusty from the north and northwest with rapidly falling temperatures surging down the Plains states and up into the Great Lakes through Wednesday. Following the heavy mountain snows and snow squalls tonight, precipitation is expected to gradually become lighter and more scattered through Wednesday. However, moisture from the next Pacific system is forecast to reach the Pacific Northwest by Tuesday night with coastal rain and increasingly heavy snow reaching into the Cascades on Wednesday. Meanwhile, some rain could reach southern Arizona and southern New Mexico later on Wednesday when a lingering Pacific cutoff system finally makes its way into Baja California. Kong Graphics available at https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/basicwx/basicwx_ndfd.php