Worst Case Scenario Would Bring Wild Weather to the East Coast The atmosphere as of Saturday holds potential for the development of a powerful storm off the Atlantic Seaboard of the United States early next week. While this would be true to some extent without the existence of Hurricane Wilma and the newly-dubbed Tropical Storm Alpha, which represent a great reservoir of tropical warmth and moisture, it only ratchets up the potential. Two players here are key. First, a sharply dipping jet stream will be thrusting southward from central Canada and tapping a cold pool to spin up low pressure south of the Great Lakes Sunday and Monday. The other player, none other than Hurricane Wilma, will pull away from Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula in time for a crossing of the Florida Peninsula Monday. It is Monday night and Tuesday when things could get crazy in the meteorological sense. The strong northeast-trending jet stream will scoop up Wilma, with possible contribution from Alpha, as the low shifts from the Appalachians to the coast. If Wilma were to follow the western edges of its forecast window and begin to draw in the cool low from the west, an explosive deepening could result, culminating in a deep and fully merged storm raging south of Nova Scotia Wednesday. While this is not the most likely scenario, it is one that is in the realm of possibility. This is what could happen Monday night and Tuesday if our Worst Case Scenario came to pass. Heavy, driving rains and gales would pound the Seaboard from North Carolina to southern New England. As the rains spread northwards and the storm tapped the cold pole from the west, rain would turn to heavy wet snow over the inland Northeast. Keep checking back with us at AccuWeather.com Weather Headlines to see what the latest is on this interesting, even serious, weather situation.