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The nation's weather

[April 20, 2010] (AP) Thursday's main weather producers were forecast to come from a trough of low pressure and an associated cold front moving through the western half of the nation.

(Click on map for larger image.)

Flow around this system would spread energy across the Intermountain West, triggering scattered rain and snow showers across the Northwest and significant precipitation across areas of Utah through Colorado. Heavy snowfall was expected to blanket the mountains and higher terrain of the central Great Basin and would lead to significant snowfall accumulations by the end of the day. Strong winds associated with this system would heighten hazardous travel conditions throughout the day with lower visibilities due to blowing snow and dust.

As this trough trekked eastward, energy from this system was expected to interact with moisture rising from the Gulf of Mexico to produce moderate precipitation across the northern Plains by the evening hours.

Meanwhile, along the West Coast, a brief window of dry weather was forecast to return to portions of the Pacific Northwest and northern California, while rain and thunderstorms drop into Southern California.

In the East, a building ridge of high pressure was forecast to produce another day of fair weather activity from the central and southern Plains to the East Coast. Ridging would allow temperatures across the East to rise to unseasonably warm daytime highs. Low relative humidity levels and breezy winds would raise wildfire and grassland fire concerns across Alabama, southeastern Georgia and Florida, as well as western Texas and eastern New Mexico.

Temperatures in the Lower 48 states Wednesday ranged from a low of 3 degrees at Owatonna, Minn., to a high of 98 degrees at Childress, Texas.

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On the Net:

Weather Underground: http://www.wunderground.com/

National Weather Service:
http://iwin.nws.noaa.gov/

Intellicast:
http://www.intellicast.com/

[Associated Press article from Weather Underground]