Weather

A somewhat drier pattern ahead for the Heartland

A storm centered Thursday morning over the lower Great Lakes will continue to move northeastward, producing rain and wet snow across the northeastern quarter of the nation. Locally heavy showers and thunderstorms — some severe— are likely farther east in the warm, humid, unstable air across the Mid-Atlantic States. In the storm’s wake, dry, increasingly warm weather will spread eastward from the Great Plains, reaching the eastern half of the nation by the weekend. Out west, renewed Pacific storminess will generate heavy rain and mountain snow, with 5-day precipitation totals in the Sierra Nevada approaching 6 inches (liquid equivalent), although the Southwest will remain dry.

Looking ahead, the 6- to 10-day outlook calls for warmer-than-normal weather across most of the nation, with pockets of below-normal temperatures confined to Texas’ Big Bend Region and the Pacific Northwest. Meanwhile, drier-than-normal conditions are expected from the central Rockies eastward through the Corn Belt and Northeast, with wetter-than-normal weather forecasted for the western Gulf Coast States and from the central and northern Pacific Coast into the upper Midwest.

5-Day Precipitation Totals

NOAA’s 6- to 10- Day Outlook

NOAA’s 8- to 14- Day Outlook