Thursday's Weather Outlook

From showers in the Southwest to deep snow over the Rockies and dangerous Midwestern weather, Thursday dumps a bag of tricks over the nation. 

We are now over midway through meteorological spring, but winter will make a deep push for power in the western U.S. underneath a Canadian blast of freezing air. Over both the far northwestern Plains and over mountainous areas east of the Pacific states, deep piles of snowfall for mid-April will drop thanks to heavy available moisture and surging cold fronts forcing snowy precipitation to return.  

Even wintry mixes, although light and isolated, are likely as far south as southern Nevada, with rain showers taking the helm after some daytime heating. Isolated thunderstorms are also possible in the evening hours in southern California. 

Downwind of the West's troublesome skies, other forms of inclement weather emerge over the northern Low Plains and Midwest as a hefty springtime low revolves into play. Showers will evolve into thunderstorms ahead of both the storm's cold and warm fronts through the day, with severe weather popping up in the late afternoon and evening hours in the central Midwest. Threats of large hail, damaging winds, and a few tornadoes will emerge here as both singular supercells and consolidated lines of storms. 

Luckily for the Pacific Northwest, the South, and the East Coast, higher pressures and a lack of disturbances call for a drier Thursday. 

As for Thursday's highs, blazing 80s and 90s arise in the southern and central Plains. However, the western reaches of this region will at least be able to sweat underneath arid and particularly gusty winds, but this still comes with the tradeoff of dangerous fire weather conditions toward the southern High Plains and Rockies. 

In contrast, the Low Plains will need to bring out the dehumidifiers under a torrid run-in with Gulf air. Lower 80s and 70s also raise thermometers in the South and the Desert Southwest, while warm 60s and 50s mark the Mid-Atlantic, the Great Lakes, the lower Intermountain West, and the Pacific Northwest. 

Cooler temperatures, in the 30s and 40s, chill folks in the interior Northeast, the northwestern Plains, and the northern Intermountain West, and unfortunately for the northern Rockies, frigid 20s and isolated teens cap the day.