Editing Weather Prediction Center (section)

===Winter weather forecasts===
The WPC Winter Weather Desk issues heavy snow and icing forecast products, which support the NWS winter weather watch/warning/outlook program.  These forecasts are for the contiguous United States (CONUS) and issued from September 15 to May 15 each cold season. Graphical forecasts are issued twice daily at 0900 UTC and 2100 UTC (4AM/PM EST respectively), although updates may be warranted by rapidly changing conditions.

The Winter Weather Desk issues probabilistic heavy snow and icing guidance products for the next three days.  The forecasts represent the probability that freezing rain or combined snow/sleet accumulations will meet specific criteria within a 24-hour period. These products are issued in probabilistic form to better represent the forecast uncertainty associated with a particular event. The Winter Weather Desk produces a heavy snow and icing discussion that provides the meteorological reasoning for the 24-hour probabilistic heavy snow and icing guidance graphics. This text message is used by internal and external clients including NWS field offices, [[United States Department of Homeland Security|Department of Homeland Security]], [[Federal Emergency Management Agency|FEMA]], the [[White House]], [[United States Department of Commerce|Department of Commerce]], [[Federal Aviation Administration|FAA]], and the general meteorological community (private sector and the media).<ref name="AboutWPC"/>