Short Range Forecast Discussion NWS Weather Prediction Center College Park MD 300 AM EST Fri Mar 08 2024 Valid 12Z Fri Mar 08 2024 - 12Z Sun Mar 10 2024 ...Snow gradually tapering off over the central High Plains as well as central/southern Rockies... ...Threat of flash flooding and severe weather expected to sweep across the Deep South to the Southeast through the next couple of days... ...An intensifying low pressure system will bring locally heavy rain and strong winds from the Ohio Valley to New England late Saturday into Sunday... ...Wet snow expected across the Great Lakes to northern New England late Saturday to Sunday as next round of rain and mountain snow reaches the Pacific Northwest... Upper-level moisture arriving from the eastern Pacific in association with a subtropical jet stream will interact with a cold air mass dipping into the mid-section of the country through the next couple of days. This interaction will result in active to locally severe weather to move from west to east across many areas of the eastern half of the country through Sunday morning. In addition, lower-level moisture from the Gulf of Mexico will be ingested into the system. These complex interactions will result in an axis of heavy rain and possibly severe weather to blossom later today across the lower Mississippi Valley, spreading through the Deep South Friday night, and then through the Southeast on Saturday. Meanwhile, a low-level disturbance that has been sustaining locally heavy snow over the central High Plains is forecast to weaken and allow the snow there, as well as the snow over the central to southern Rockies, to gradually taper off today into this evening. By Saturday, a low pressure center is forecast to consolidate over the Ohio Valley when the system intensifies more rapidly and tracks northeastward into the lower Great Lakes Saturday night. Locally heavy rain and increasingly strong and gusty winds are expected to develop from the Ohio Valley to New England late Saturday into Sunday. Colder air wrapping around the low pressure center is expected to change the rain to wet snow from across the Great Lakes to portions of northern New England especially for the higher elevations. Much of the Great Plains will dry out on Saturday behind the low pressure system as a high pressure system takes over. The dry weather will extend into much of the western U.S. However, moisture associated with the next Pacific system is scheduled to reach the Olympic Peninsula later today with rain for the lower elevations and snow for rather high elevations. The rain and mountain snow will expand southward across Oregon and into northern California on Saturday into Saturday night. The Cascades will see snow picking up intensity on Saturday as the next batch of moisture getting ready to reach the coastline of the Pacific Northwest by early on Sunday. Kong Graphics available at https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/basicwx/basicwx_ndfd.php