Snow forecast for Northern Plains and potential record cold in the South

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BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Some of the first wintry weather of the season is on the way for much of the U.S. in the coming days, including potentially record low temperatures for parts of the South and snow in the Northern Plains.

“Seems like a shot across the bow,” said Judah Cohen, a research scientist at MIT.

The Dakotas and parts of southern Minnesota have the highest potential for snowfall late Friday through Saturday morning, including some areas that could see as much as 2 to 3 inches (5 to 8 centimeters) of snow, said Ashton Robinson Cook, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service's Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.

Temperatures from the 60s to the 80s (15 to 27 Celsius) on Friday across much of the central U.S. are expected to plummet as a front spreads from the Northern Plains to the South through the weekend. Highs will likely stay in the 30s in parts of Nebraska, Iowa and northern Missouri by Sunday, and the chilly temperatures are expected to spread into Oklahoma and northwestern Arkansas, Cook said.

"It’s a little bit unusual to have this strong of a cold push this early in the season,” Cook said.

On Monday, temperatures in the 30s and 40s are forecast to move from the Ohio Valley to the southern U.S., where the cold air could produce daily record lows on Tuesday of 24 in Knoxville, Tennessee; 26 in Birmingham, Alabama; 32 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and 40 near Orlando, Florida, Cook said.

In the South, organizers of festivals held outdoors in November during the region’s typically mild climate are bracing for the unusually bitter cold that seems ahead of schedule for this time of year.

At this weekend’s Molena Bigfoot Fest in the small town of Molena, Georgia, organizers hope the cold weather will be as elusive as the legendary beast — and the temperature doesn’t dip until after the festival concludes Saturday evening.

The animal shows, music performances and most activities will be held outside on Saturday, said Alla Drake, an assistant city clerk who helps out with the festival.

Planning for the Bigfoot festival has been going on all year, so hopes are high for warm weather and no rain, Lee said. It celebrates the evidence collected by Pike County Sheriff’s Deputy James Akin, who was called repeatedly to strange events near Elkins Creek in the 1990s. He made plaster casts of an enormous footprint famous for its level of detail.

Warmer temperatures should spread through the South beginning Wednesday.

At the Roosevelt Park Zoo in Minot, North Dakota, where up to 3 inches (8 centimeters) of snow is forecast Friday night, the staff has begun typical preparations for the cold, General Curator Chelsea Mihalick said. African animals, including a giraffe calf born Sunday, are already inside heated buildings, and maintenance workers make sure heaters are working properly.

“We've gotten pretty lucky as far as we haven't gotten anything yet, or the cold weather just now has come,” Mihalick said.

Some animals, such as tigers, love the snow. Cubs were born at the zoo in May.

“This will be their first snowfall, so it will be fun to see them running around in the snow,” Mihalick said.

The expected cold spell won't last, though, as warmer temperatures are forecast for much of the central U.S. starting Wednesday and Thursday, Cook said.

“This is a brief cold snap. It won't stay around very long,” he said.

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AP writer Jeff Martin contributed from Atlanta.