Weather Underground Forecast for Friday, May 16, 2008.

Low pressure moving off the Atlantic coast will intensify on Friday as it brings wet weather to the region from New England all the way south to the Gulf Coast. A cold front extending southward from the low will trigger some severe thunderstorms along the coastline of the Southeast. These storms are unlikely to cause a large scale outbreak of foul weather, but a few small areas could be affected by damaging winds, and a few weak tornadoes could also develop. Damaging hail is unlikely from these storms.

While the Southeast coast has the greatest chance of damaging winds, the Gulf Coast will see much heavier rains as abundant moisture flows ashore into southern Louisiana and Northern Florida. The Northeast will also see heavy rainfall on Friday as a warm front lingers over the region, dropping steady rains most of the day.

In the West, conditions will be generally dry on Friday as high pressure continues to build over the region, but a weakness in the high over the Southwest will allow some moisture to stream into the region and another day of thunderstorms is possible over New Mexico. Elsewhere in the West, temperatures are expected to remain exceptionally high, and skies will clear out even more. Highs in the interior valleys of the west will hit the triple digits in California, and Washington and Oregon will likely see highs in the 90s.

Temperatures in the Lower 48 states Thursday ranged from a low of 19 degrees at Copper Mountain, Colo to a high of 109 degrees at Death Valley, Calif.