More moderate to heavy precipitation is expected across the dry area in the interior eastern United States, where 1.5 to 3.5 inches of precipitation are forecast during December 24 – 28, 2008. Moderate amounts are expected to the south and east of the Appalachians, and across southeastern Louisiana. Totals are forecast to be much lower farther east and south, with only a few tenths of an inch expected in northeastern North Carolina, and little or none along the Florida Peninsula.
Moderate to heavy precipitation (0.5 to 2.0 inches) is also forecast for central and eastern sections of the dry area in and near the Great Lakes region, with lesser amounts expected in eastern Minnesota, northwestern Wisconsin, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The dry areas in the Plains from Texas to North Dakota and Montana are expected to remain dry, with amounts exceeding 0.5 inch restricted to eastern Oklahoma.
Farther west, more beneficial precipitation is anticipated from the Rockies westward to the Pacific Ocean, with amounts below 0.25 inch restricted to the deserts. More than an inch is expected in coastal areas and typically-wetter higher elevations, with 2 to 6 inches predicted in central Arizona, the mountains of southwestern California, the Sierra Nevada, the southern Cascades, and northwestern California.
Around the cusp of the new year (December 29, 2008 through January 2, 2009), odds favor above-normal precipitation in the Great Lakes region, the northern Plains, and the western states from northwestern Colorado northward through Montana and westward to the central California coast. Meanwhile, drier than normal conditions are favored in the Southwest, the southern Rockies, the central and southern Plains, peninsular Florida, and the southern half of the D0 area in northwestern Alaska.
