Prognostic Meteorological Discussion
Issued by NWS
Issued by NWS
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466 FXUS01 KWBC 250826 PMDSPD Short Range Forecast Discussion NWS Weather Prediction Center College Park MD 300 AM EST Tue Nov 25 2025 Valid 12Z Tue Nov 25 2025 - 12Z Thu Nov 27 2025 ...Rain changing to locally heavy snow under blustery and windy conditions expected to spread from west to east across the northern tier states for the next couple of days... ...Flash flood and severe weather threats moving through the Deep South early today before reaching the interior Southeast tonight... ...Well above average temperatures across much of the central/eastern U.S. will give way to much colder and windy conditions heading into Thanksgiving Day... A deepening upper-level trough interacting with an invasion of polar air from western Canada will send a clipper type low-pressure system from west to east across the northern tier states for the next couple of days. This clipper is forecast to intensify and expand in size as it gradually engulfs another low pressure/frontal system which is bringing heavy rain and severe thunderstorms across the Deep South today. A cold rain is expected to fall across the northern Plains today prior to the arrival of this clipper system. Falling temperatures with rain changing to moderate to locally heavy snow together with strong and very gusty westerly winds will signal the passage of the system center. By tonight, the clipper is forecast to intensify further, bringing with it rain and possibly embedded thunderstorms into the upper Midwest ahead of a cold front. Areas just north of the track of the system center will see rain changing to locally heavy snow with very gusty winds. By Wednesday, the entire system will intensify and expand further, and will begin to engulf the other frontal and low pressure system farther to the south. Moderate to heavy snow will overspread the upper Great Lakes on Wednesday while rain across the remainder of the Great Lakes will change over to snow from west to east from Wednesday night into Thanksgiving morning on the back side of the continually expanding low pressure system. Snowfall amounts will progressively increase from west to east across the northern Plains with highest totals of over a foot likely downwind from the Snow Belt of Lake Superior. Farther south, the other frontal system with a weak low pressure center will continue to ingest moisture from the Gulf and dump heavy rain with some severe thunderstorms this morning from west to east across the Deep South into the Tennessee Valley. As the the system advances toward the East Coast, a period of enhanced rainfall can be expected to move through the central Appalachians later today followed by the interior Mid-Atlantic this evening. The rain will then move across New England through tonight. Meanwhile, showers and thunderstorms will be moving through the remainder of the East Coast and the Southeast through Wednesday afternoon associated with the trailing cold front. The polar air will engulf much of the central and eastern U.S. by Thanksgiving morning behind the cold front as the huge circulation of the low pressure system begins to exit into southeastern Canada. Much of the central and eastern U.S. will be milder than normal before the arrival of the polar air mass. Meanwhile, the western U.S. will generally be milder than normal following a brief cool down across the Northwest. Moisture from the next system is scheduled to reach the Pacific Northwest today with a good dose of rain into tonight for the lower elevations while snow will engulf the Cascades, then reaching into the northern Rockies overnight into Wednesday morning. Another system in its wake will begin to spread rain from northern Oregon on Wednesday and into much of Oregon by Thanksgiving morning with wet snow along the Cascades. Kong Graphics available at https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/basicwx/basicwx_ndfd.php $$