Severe Storms in the Southeast; Heavy Mountain Snow in the Northwest

A fast-moving low pressure system expected to spread heavy rains and potential severe weather across portions of the Southeast today. Below average temperatures continue for the Pacific Northwest and much of the East over the next two days. Heavy snows over the Cascades and into the northern Rockies today and on Thursday.

Forecast for Tuesday, March 31, 2020

Wednesday will be followed by widespread snow across the northern Plains on Thursday...

A fast-moving low pressure system moving across the Deep South will bring a quick round of heavy rain and the potential of severe weather through the Southeast today into tonight. The rain will exit the Southeast U.S. coast later tonight but a period of heavy rain with increasing winds could clip the eastern shores of North Carolina early on Wednesday as the low pressure system is expected to intensify into a massive storm off the East Coast. This storm will also be very expansive in size and will have some influence in keeping light amounts of wet snow across northern New England through Thursday morning.

Large portions of the country over the next two days will be in a cool spring weather pattern as upper level lows are anchored across the Pacific Northwest/southwest Canada and over the Northeast. These upper lows will keep temperatures below average from the Pacific Northwest, northern Rockies and into the northern High Plains, as well as across much of the eastern U.S. The exception will be along the Gulf coast into Florida where much above average temperatures will continue Tuesday before cooler temperatures move in behind a cold front on Wednesday. Above average temperatures also likely from southern California, through the Southwest and across much of Plains over the next two days.

Following the departure of the low pressure system across the Southeast into the Atlantic on Wednesday, the focus of active weather will shift to the northwestern U.S. where the aforementioned cold upper lows will support heavy snow along the Cascades of Washington & Oregon into much of the higher elevations of the northern Rockies. Snow totals over the next two days may be in the 1 to 2 foot range across these areas. By Wednesday night into Thursday, a complex interaction of the upper lows with cold air intrusion from Canada will result in an increasing threat of snow expanding eastward from the northern High Plains toward the upper Midwest.

Kong/Oravec