WACO, Texas (KWTX) - A strong storm system is spinning off the west coast of California, dumping a substantial amount of rainfall today and even some mountain snow in California today. This system will strengthen as it starts to move to the east across the Colorado Rockies, into the northern Plains, and into parts of the Midwest over the next few days. As it moves eastward, blizzard conditions and snow accumulations of multiple inches to even a few feet of snow will unfold in several states. Travel in these parts of the country will be hazardous for the end of the week.

Central Texas Impacts

This same system is expected to drop a cold front southward into Central Texas by Friday. This front is packing a punch to many Americans and will bring us some of the coldest weather we’ve seen so far this season! Highs will be dropping down into the 60s for Friday and staying put in the 50s starting this weekend. That’s a lot longer than our last cool down too...

We are anticipating the timing of the cold front to come on Friday -- when exactly is still a big question mark. It will depend on how dense the cold air is behind it. As of now, it could come in the morning (what we are leaning towards), but it could also lag into the afternoon. This is a big factor we will be tracking in the next few days.

First freeze of the season?

Models are hinting that this cold push could also bring temperatures down overnight into the 30s and possibly give us our first frost or even light freeze of the season. It’ll be a good idea to cover outdoor plants starting Friday night, with temperatures expected to dip low enough to put an end to growth for sensitive plants. If models continue to trend cooler, we may be adjusting lows over the weekend, so make sure to keep an eye on that.

The average first freeze in Central Texas is typically November 22 so we aren’t far from that date. We typically see only see about 3-4 days at or below freezing in November. The most freezes we have seen in the month of November was in 1959 with 12 freezes in the month. January is when we typically see the most days with freezing temperatures.

If you know a teacher or class that want’s to get in on the action, we have a contest to see who can guess the first freeze of the season for a chance to win $1,000 and a pizza party for their classroom.

Enter for a chance to win for your classroom(KWTX)

Will the front bring us rain?

The main energy and dynamics of this system will stay in the northern part of the country, which will limit our chance to see rain out of the system. That also limits our severe weather chance since we will really only have the driving force of the front and moisture in the air. Of course, we will be finetuning and updating, as needed, about the prospects for rain over the next few days. Rain won’t be the big story with this front - it’s the temperature drop that’s the main change.

We only expect to see accumulations about .25" or less over the next 5 days - highest totals SE(KWTX)

Extended impacts

The Climate Prediction Center puts out a 6-10 day outlook & a 8-14 day outlook for both temperatures and precipitation and how the weather pattern looks to compare to normal standards. Both the outlooks, 6-10 day and 8-14 day, have a massive cooler-than-normal weather pattern for a majority of the nation. This means temperatures could stay in sweater-weather territory through November 22.