Weather Forecast: Today, Tonight, Tomorrow, Next Day, Five Days, and Intermediate-Term Outlooks for the U.S. and a Five-Day Forecast for the World: posted March 2, 2023

First, the 48-Hour Forecast (It is a 48 to 72 Hour Forecast actually)

Daily weather maps. I try to keep the below three maps updated. The Day 1 map updates twice a day and the Day 2 and 3 maps update only once a day. I will be doing the updating during the period described in the title of the article but if you happen to read this article later, you can get updates by clicking HERE

TODAY (or late in the day the evening/overnight map will appear)

TOMORROW

 NEXT DAY

This animation shows how things may play out over the next 60 hours. To update click here.

ATMOSPHERIC RIVERS

This tells us what is approaching the West Coast. Click HERE to update If I have not gotten around to doing the update.   Here is some useful information about Atmospheric Rivers.

Continuation of the NWS Short Range Forecast (It is updated by NWS twice a day and these updates can be found here. We post at least one of those updates daily, sometimes both. The Highlights are shown in the lede paragraph of this article.

A strengthening storm system will be producing widespread hazardous
conditions over the next two days as it pushes northeastward from the
Southern Plains Thursday afternoon, across the Lower to Middle Mississippi
Valley and Ohio Valley region on Friday and into the Northeast Friday
night and Saturday. Thunderstorm activity will be developing rapidly late
Thursday afternoon/evening ahead of this storm across eastern portions of
the Southern Plains from central to eastern Oklahoma into north Texas.
These thunderstorms will have the potential to produce flash flooding and
severe weather as they push eastward tonight into Friday morning across
the Lower Arkansas Valley, Lower to Middle Mississippi Valley and Lower
Ohio Valley region. The heavy rain/flash flooding and severe weather
threat will then push through the Ohio Valley and Tennessee Valleys on
Friday as the strong storm continues to move steadily northeastward.
During Friday, heavy snows will also develop on the northwest and northern
fringes of the storm across northern Illinois, northern Indiana and the
southern portions of the L.P. of Michigan where snow totals of 6″ or
greater are possible. This heavy snow potential will then spread into
portions of the Northeast and New England Friday night into Saturday with
snow totals of 6-12″+ possible across Upstate and Northern New York, all
of Vermont, New Hampshire, northern Massachusetts and southern Maine. In
areas of heavy snow, travel will be very difficult from the combination of
snow rates greater than an inch an hour and strong winds.

While winter weather grips areas from the Lower Lakes into the Northeast,
record warmth will continue across portions of Florida. Numerous record
high temperatures have been set across the southern tier of the nation
along the Gulf Coast over the past few days. While somewhat cooler
temperatures are expected across the western to central Gulf Coast over
the next few days, much above average temperatures, 10 to 20 degrees above
average, will continue across much of Florida, supporting the potential
for additional record highs Friday and Saturday. In contrast, below
average temperatures will continue to persist across much of the West to
the west of the Rockies into this weekend. Additional record or near
record cold maximum temperatures are possible again on Saturday along much
of coastal California.

A frontal boundary moving toward the Pacific Northwest coast Friday night
will bring additional moderate to heavy precipitation into coastal
sections of the Pacific Northwest, southward into northern California.
Additional heavy snows likely through the Cascades of Washington State and
Oregon, the Olympic Range of Washington and the coast ranges of Oregon,
northwest California and the northern Sierra Range. Areas from far
southwest Oregon into northern California have seen above average
precipitation/mountain snows over the past week with the likelihood of
additional heavy snows through this upcoming weekend. By the end of the
weekend additional snow totals of 1 to 4 feet are possible across these
areas, with the heaviest of these totals likely for the northern Sierra
Range.

Below is the current five-day cumulative forecast of precipitation (Updates can be found HERE)

Now we look at Intermediate-Term “Outlook” maps for three time periods. Days 6 – 10, Days 8 – 14, and Weeks 3 and 4.  An outlook differs from a forecast based on how NOAA uses these terms in that an “outlook” presents information as deviation from normal and the likelihood of these deviations.

Below are the links to obtain updates and additional information. They are particularly useful if you happen to be reading this article significantly later than when it was published. I always try to provide readers with the source of the information in my articles.

Temperature month to date can be found at https://hprcc.unl.edu/products/maps/acis/MonthTDeptUS.png

Precipitation month to date can be found at  https://hprcc.unl.edu/products/maps/acis /MonthPNormUS.png

Worldwide Tropical Forecast (This is a NOAA Product)