Short Range Forecast Discussion NWS Weather Prediction Center College Park MD 300 AM EST Sat Dec 07 2024 Valid 12Z Sat Dec 07 2024 - 12Z Mon Dec 09 2024 ...Periods of mixed rain and snow linger from the Great Lakes to northern New England through the weekend... ...Heavy rain threat emerges across the Deep South late Sunday into Monday... ...Unsettled and windy weather spreading across the Pacific Northwest this weekend will reach into the northern Plains as snow by Monday... ...Arctic air across the eastern U.S. will give way to above normal temperatures by Monday... As an arctic high pressure system moderates and retreats across the eastern portion of the country, unsettled weather will emerge and expand across the Deep South as well as the Pacific Northwest. Moisture returning behind the high pressure system today will begin to interact with an upper-level trough and a coastal front just off the Texas coast. This will result in expanding areas of light to moderate rain with embedded thunderstorms across the eastern two-thirds of Texas today. The entire system will shift northeastward on Sunday before evolving into a heavy rain threat across the lower Mississippi Valley toward the Tennessee Valley by late Sunday into early Monday. A couple of inches of rain is expected in this general vicinity with locally higher amounts through Monday morning. Meanwhile, periods of mixed rain and snow are expected to linger across the Great Lakes and into northern New England where a clipper low pressure system is forecast to track along a nearly stationary arctic front. Up to a foot of new snow is possible near the Canadian border in these areas. The Pacific Northwest is entering a period of increasingly unsettled weather as a rather dynamic upper trough arrives from the Pacific. Low-elevation rain and high-elevation heavy snow can be expected for the Cascades and northern Idaho as the weekend progresses with windy conditions. The mountain snow and low-elevation rain will progress farther inland into the northern Rockies early Sunday as a low pressure system begins to develop across the northern High Plains into Alberta Province of Canada. Winter Storm Warnings and Advisories are active across the northern Rockies through Saturday where several inches of snowfall and some icing potential will create hazardous travel conditions. Meanwhile, much of the remainder of the western U.S. will remain dry and milder than normal as high pressure dominates. By Sunday night into Monday morning, a low pressure system is forecast to track across the northern Plains with snow and wind. Mainly light snowfall amounts are expected for North Dakota into Montana, with high amounts enhanced by local terrains. Low temperatures in the 20s as far south as the Florida Panhandle this morning have prompted Freeze Warnings for portions of northern Florida into Georgia. High temperatures will begin to moderate across the East by Sunday as anomalously mild temperatures across the central U.S. shift eastward into the region. Highs should be in the 60s and 70s Sunday across the Southeast and 50s and 40s across the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, while 50s and 60s will expand across the northern and central Plains Sunday afternoon ahead of the developing low pressure system. Kong Graphics available at https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/basicwx/basicwx_ndfd.php