The nation's weather

Rainy weather was forecast to persist throughout the Northeast on Tuesday as a storm system located off the Mid-Atlantic coast lifted northward to the New England coast.

Wrap-around flow associated with this system would usher moisture from the Atlantic Ocean across the coast, triggering light to moderate rain showers with possible thunderstorms across the nearby coastal areas from the Mid-Atlantic to the Northeast.

Meanwhile, high pressure was expected to build in behind this system, bringing dry and quiet weather activity across the Southwest, the Plains, and the Southeast. Warmer temperatures with above normal daytime highs would accompany fair weather activity in the Midwest, while mild temperatures were expected across the Southeast. Low relative humidity levels, moderate winds, and warming would create an increased risk of fire danger across the Florida Panhandle, as well as areas of the Southern Plains.

In the West, a large trough of low pressure in the eastern Pacific was forecast to move over the West Coast on Tuesday. The progression of this trough would renew rain and high elevation snowfall across the Pacific Northwest and northern California. An associated front would spark precipitation across the Northern Intermountain West and the Northern Rockies as it trekked toward the Northern and Central Plains.

Temperatures in the Lower 48 states Monday ranged from a low of 12 degrees at Land O'Lakes, Wis., to a high of 88 degrees at Gila Bend, Ariz.