Today Through the Fourth Friday (22 to 28 days) Weather Outlook for the U.S. and a Six-Day Forecast for the World: posted April 11, 2024
It is difficult to find a more comprehensive Weather Outlook anywhere else with the ability to get a local 10-day Forecast also.
This article focuses on what we are paying attention to in the next 48 to 72 hours. The article also includes weather maps for longer-term U.S. outlooks and a six-day World weather outlook which can be very useful for travelers.
First the NWS Short Range Forecast. The afternoon NWS text update can be found here but it is unlikely to have changed very much. The images in this article automatically update.
Short Range Forecast Discussion
NWS Weather Prediction Center College Park MD
Thu Apr 11 2024
Valid 12Z Thu Apr 11 2024 – 12Z Sat Apr 13 2024…Powerful storm system to foster high wind potential over much of the
eastern U.S. today with severe weather, heavy rain and flash flood threats
for parts of the Southeast, upper Ohio Valley and into the northern
Mid-Atlantic……High wind threat continues across the Great Lakes, Northeast, and into
the Appalachians on Friday into early Saturday as flash flood threat will
be confined to northern New England…An intensifying low pressure system centered over the Mid-South early this
morning is forecast to track northeast toward the Great Lakes through
tonight. This system will progressively engulf the entire eastern U.S.
today with widespread moderate rainfall and a couple axes of heavy rain.
The heaviest rains will be associated with clusters of strong to severe
thunderstorms across the Southeast ahead of a potent cold front where a
few inches of rain can be expected. Another area of heavy rain will be
near and along the track of the intense low pressure system center, from
the Mid-Mississippi Valley across the Ohio Valley toward the lower Great
Lakes where 2 inches of rain can be expected. The intensity and size of
the system will bring the threat of high winds into much of the eastern
U.S. including the Great Lakes, Midwest and the Ohio Valley through the
next couple of days. The southern portion of the potent cold front is
forecast to move off the Southeast U.S. this evening, bringing the heavy
rain and thunderstorms out into the Atlantic. The front will take extra
time to pass through Florida, where a line of strong to severe
thunderstorms is forecast to pass through the peninsula today into tonight.
Meanwhile, warm and moist air from the Atlantic will surge up the Eastern
Seaboard tonight with widespread moderate to locally heavy rain under very
strong and gusty south-southeasterly winds.Friday will likely see the moderate to heavy rain and high winds impacting
the Great Lakes and the entire Northeast as the Mid-Atlantic clears out
from the rain. The center of the low pressure system should begin exiting
the Great Lakes into southern Canada early on Friday. However, the size
and intensity of the storm will keep the high winds and heavy rain threat
into Saturday morning from the lower Great Lakes to the Northeast with
flash flooding threat to be confined across northern New England.Outside of the big storm in the eastern U.S., the weather will be
relatively quiet across the Southwest and through the mid-section of the
country under the influence of a high pressure system. The West Coast
will see somewhat more active weather dropping in from north to south
through the next couple of days as a compact but energetic upper low that
originated from the Arctic Ocean dips south and approaches California by
Saturday morning. Mainly light to locally moderate precipitation can be
expected to reach coastal Pacific Northwest today, reaching into northern
California on Friday before sliding south into central California by
Saturday morning. Some of the precipitation will spill into the interior
section of the Northeast by Friday and continue into Saturday morning.