We've got the general theme of generally cold weather a week from now, but there's still a ton of details to hash out in the leadup. For example, the CMC has a bundle of
mid-level vorticity moving down the central Mississippi River valley this Friday into Saturday. That doesn't look like much, but it's enough to send a surface high pressure careening down the Central Plains. The GFS and ECWMF don't really show this.
The result? A comical difference between the CMC and the GFS. Check out these model images for 12Z Saturday. It's pretty funny to look at the nearly 180° difference in low-level wind, and leads to 20-30°F temperature differences. You can imagine such massive differences have plenty of downstream effects. For example, the CMC has temperatures Sunday morning in the mid-teens. The GFS? In the 60s.

