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 As the northern half of the front exits, precipitation in the Northeast and the northern Mid-Atlantic will wind down through the morning and afternoon. Cooler and drier weather will fill in behind the exiting front, allowing much of these regions to experience significantly cooler daytime highs on Friday, with temperatures becoming up to 20 degrees cooler than Thursday's daytime highs.
Meanwhile, moisture pooling along the southern half of this cold front will maintain chances of rain showers and thunderstorms from Texas through the Carolinas, while snow showers persist in eastern New Mexico.
Behind this cold front, a second, weakening system will drop southeastward into the Great Lakes. The system will produce light snow showers over parts of the Great Lakes into the Northeast by Friday evening.
Elsewhere in the East, easterly winds across the southern tip of Florida will become weaker, and the Gulf
Coast sea breeze will pick up across the area in the afternoon. This may kick up more light showers and chances of thunderstorms in the region.
In the West, high pressure will remain the dominant weather feature of much of the region, with dry and fair conditions. Expect winds to pick up across California as the system strengthens over the Great Basin. Rain and high-elevation snow will return to parts of the Pacific Northwest on Friday as a Pacific cold front reaches the area.
Temperatures in the Lower 48 states Thursday ranged from a morning low of
minus 20 degrees at West Yellowstone, Mont., to a high of 89 degrees at Zapata, Texas. | 
