Short Range Forecast Discussion NWS Weather Prediction Center College Park MD 254 PM EST Thu Dec 26 2024 Valid 00Z Fri Dec 27 2024 - 00Z Sun Dec 29 2024 ...Stormy weather pattern to continue across the Northwestern U.S. into this weekend with heavy lower elevation rains and higher elevation heavy snows... ...Increasingly wet pattern developing from the Lower Mississippi Valley, spreading northeast into the Tennessee Valley, Southern Appalachians and Mid-Atlantic... ...Arctic air remains absent from the Lower 48 with much above average temperatures across nearly all of the country... The recent stormy weather pattern across the northwestern U.S. will continue over the next few days as additional storm systems move off the Pacific. The widespread precipitation that has occurred across the Northern Rockies and Pacific Northwest over the past 24 hours will be followed by another heavy precipitation producer moving inland Thursday night across Northern California into the Pacific Northwest and then inland across the Northern Rockies on Friday. This will be followed by another heavy precipitation producer moving inland Friday night across the Pacific Northwest and into the Northern Rockies during Saturday. Yet another Pacific storm will spread another round of heavy precipitation into the Northwestern U.S. Sunday into Monday. By the end of the weekend, rainfall totals of 3-5"+ likely through the Washington and Oregon Cascades, northwest California coastal mountains into the northern Sierra, while snowfall totals of 1 to 3 feet are likely in the highest elevations of the Northwest. The recent wet weather pattern across the Northwest and likelihood of additional widespread heavy precipitation amounts into this weekend will result in increasing stream flows and soil saturation levels, leading to an increasing threat of river flooding, rock and mudslides. Wet weather will also be increasing over the next few days from Lower Mississippi Valley, northeastward into the Tennessee Valley, Southern Appalachians and Mid-Atlantic. Precipitation enhancing over eastern portions of the Southern Plains this afternoon will spread into the Lower Mississippi Valley/Tennessee Valley tonight, northward into the Upper Mississippi Valley on Friday and eastward into the Southern Appalachians and Mid-Atlantic Saturday and Sunday. While drought conditions have improved over the past few weeks across portions of the South and East, many areas still remain below average with precipitation, with the upcoming rains much welcomed hydrologically. While it will be stormy over the next few days across large portions of the Lower 48, arctic air will remain absent as the overall flow across the nation is from west to east, keeping arctic air well north of the U.S./Canadian border. Much of the Lower 48 will see much above average temperatures over the next few days. This will be a continuation to the above average pattern for areas to the west of the Mississippi River, but a reversal of the overall below average pattern that has dominated areas east of the Mississippi during December. This much above average pattern will support potential for record high morning low temperatures across the Central Plains into the Mid to Upper Mississippi Valley on Friday and across the Upper Mississippi Valley and Great Lakes region on Saturday. Oravec Graphics available at https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/basicwx/basicwx_ndfd.php