Editing Weather Prediction Center (section)

===Short-term forecasts (mesoscale discussions)===
Short-term forecasts are made at the meteorological watch (metwatch) desk. It issues mesoscale precipitation discussions (MPDs) as flash flood guidance for NWS forecast offices (NWSFOs), NWS River Forecast Centers (RFCs), the media, emergency managers, and other users. MPDs contain technical discussions concerning heavy rainfall events and expected impacts on flash flooding. They are ideally issued 1–6 hours preceding an event, include graphical descriptions of the details and the area covered. Their size typically is about half the size of Kansas. There are three headlines ordered by severity: "flash flooding likely", "flash flooding possible", or "flash flooding unlikely".<ref>[http://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/metwatch/metwatch_mpd.php WPC Met Watch]</ref> Mesoscale discussions (MDs) once were issued by the [[Storm Prediction Center]] (SPC) for both convective (MCDs) and precipitation (MPDs) events but WPC now covers this heavy rainfall function.