Preliminary Forecasts
Issued by NWS
Issued by NWS
515 FXUS02 KWNH 280716 PREEPD Preliminary Extended Forecast Discussion NWS Weather Prediction Center College Park MD 215 AM EST Fri Nov 28 2025 Valid 12Z Mon Dec 01 2025 - 12Z Fri Dec 05 2025 ...Storm system brings enhanced rainfall to the Southeast/East Coast Monday-Tuesday with possible wintry weather to its north, especially into the Interior Northeast... ...Overview... The medium range period looks fairly active over the lower 48 next week with a couple of impactful shortwaves rounding the base of an upper low anchored over the Hudson Bay. By Monday, a shortwave will be coming through the Four Corners region into the southern tier, as a surface low materializes near the Gulf Coast. This shortwave will deepen as it lifts up the East Coast spreading possibly heavy precipitation from the South into the East early to mid next week, with some snow and ice possible on the northern side of the precipitation shield. The best chance of snow will be across interior New England. The next shortwave will dive into the West next Wednesday, with plenty of uncertainty on its evolution later in the week. ...Guidance/Predictability Assessment... The models continue to have a good handle on the larger scale pattern for next week, but plenty of uncertainty in the details that could have impacts on sensible weather. With the first shortwave, models continue to show some uncertainty in the timing, but not too significant. Details of this system however are still quite uncertain and make for a tricky forecast in terms of precipitation types on the northern side of the precipitation shield, although there seems to be a trend away from any meaningful snows closer to the East Coast. The next trough coming into the West does show somewhat more synoptic scale model differences, with uncertainty of how much energy could pull off into the southern stream and potentially form a closed low over or near southern California. The ECMWF and CMC both show more stream separation and are supported by the ensemble means. The 18z GFS was much faster with a more elongated trough (an outlier from prior runs), but the new 00z run tonight came more in line. The WPC forecast tonight was able to use a multi-model blend early, with increasing weighting from the ensemble means to 60 percent of the blend by the end of the period. Generally maintained good agreement with WPC continuity as well. ...Weather/Hazards Highlights... An area of snow associated with the next shortwave digging across the western U.S. should eventually spin up a wave of low pressure along the Gulf Coast and lift up the East Coast as well. It appears that the central Gulf Coast into the Southeast and East Coast may be the prime location of seeing heavy rain from this developing system, although the speed of motion of this system will probably limit the total rainfall amounts. Still, given the dynamics and moisture, do have a marginal risk for Monday`s ERO from the central Gulf Coast into the Southeast. For Tuesday, a marginal risk was drawn from eastern North Carolina northward to Cape Cod, generally along and east of the I-95 corridor. Meanwhile, the northern extent of this developing system will likely have wintry weather concerns. Generally, some light snow is possible across Kansas early in the week, possibly spreading across the Middle Mississippi Valley into much of the Ohio Valley, with high uncertainty in the details. Light freezing rain is also a concern, with areas of Arkansas and then into the southern/central Appalachians showing the highest possibility for that. Then as the low tracks into the western Atlantic by Tuesday, snow could occur across the Appalachians to interior Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. All of this is still rather uncertain as small changes to the low track could yield large differences in precipitation amounts and type. A northern stream shortwave through the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes behind this main system will bring additional light snows to parts of this region with some likely lake enhancement in downwind favorable locations. The next system into the West mid next week should support low elevation rain and mountain snow in the Pacific Northwest to the Intermountain West and Rockies. Precipitation should also increase across the Southwest, and possible again across the Gulf Coast. Widespread and persistent below average temperatures for this time of year can be expected for the central U.S. in particular for at least the first half of the week as arctic air spills south. The coldest anomalies for both highs and lows (around 15-25 degrees below normal) are forecast over the Plains and Mississippi Valley Sunday, and into the Midwest Monday- Tuesday given the snow cover there. Lows are likely to be below 0F in the northern Plains to Minnesota into Monday, with highs in the teens. Rounds of cooler than average temperatures are likely in the East as well, but with anomalies closer to 5-15 degrees below normal, aside from Florida that should be warmer than average by a few degrees. The Rockies westward should be more near or slightly above normal for most of the period with cold air retreating eastward for the Central U.S. by next Friday. Santorelli Additional 3-7 Day Hazard information can be found on the WPC medium range hazards outlook chart at: https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/threats/threats.php WPC medium range 500mb heights, surface systems, weather grids, quantitative precipitation forecast (QPF), excessive rainfall outlook (ERO), winter weather outlook (WWO) probabilities, heat indices, and Key Messages can be accessed from: https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/medr/5dayfcst500_wbg.gif https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/medr/5dayfcst_wbg_conus.gif https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/5km_grids/5km_gridsbody.html https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/qpf/day4-7.shtml https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/#page=ero https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/wwd/pwpf_d47/pwpf_medr.php?day=4 https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/heat_index.shtml https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/#page=ovw $$