Vigorous System Impacting the Northwest; Large System To Affect East

Increasingly wet and much milder for most of the east. Slight risk of excessive rainfall Thursday along the I-95 corridor. Another system into Washington/Oregon tomorrow.

Forecast for Monday, December 17, 2018

The once powerful front that moved through the Pacific Northwest with a vengeance yesterday will move eastward out of the High Plains with decreasing precipitation. Mainly light rain and mountain snow is expected for the Northwest into the northern and central Rockies. Focus will turn to the south along the Gulf coast where a system will organize today and expand its precipitation shield to the north and east along a forming boundary through the Florida panhandle. On Thursday the system will deepen as it pushes its cold front toward Florida as the flow off the Atlantic increases into the Carolinas. This will draw in large amounts of moisture and much milder temperatures to areas east of the Appalachians, supporting the heavy rain threat for much of the I-95 corridor from Florida northward to the mid-Atlantic on Thursday and Thursday night. This will push into New England by Friday with low temperatures above the average high for the date.

Back to the west, another system will move toward the coast early Thursday as the low center moves into Vancouver Island. More valley rain/mountain snow is forecast, especially over southwestern Oregon and up the Cascades but amounts will be somewhat limited by the speed of the system. Temperatures over much of the rest of the lower 48 will be above normal except for the lower Mississippi Valley today and tomorrow near the organizing Gulf system.

Fracasso