Polar outbreak? Rock Hill area to get rain, but really cold temperatures also may come.

The coldest air in several years is predicted to surge into the northern part of the United States, but forecasters are not certain how that polar outbreak will impact the Rock Hill area. Meanwhile, a series of fast-moving weather disturbances will bring periods of rain to the region and some snow to higher elevations of the Carolinas, meteorologists say.

In the Rock Hill area, temperatures this weekend are forecast to be near seasonal averages, with daytime highs in the low 50s Saturday and Sunday.

Also, a low pressure system is forecast to sweep across the Carolinas, bringing rain to lower elevations and snow to areas above 2,000 feet. The National Weather Service says the Rock Hill area will get rain from late Saturday night into Sunday morning. But snow could accumulate in the higher elevations of northwest South Carolina and the Foothills of North Carolina. Even heavier amounts are possible in the N.C. mountains.

“The coldest air of the season is set to enter the Northern Plains (Friday night) and slowly filter southward into the Midwest and Ohio Valley by Saturday,” says meteorologist Cody Snell, of the government’s Weather Prediction Center.

Snell said wind chills of minus-50 degrees are possible in parts of Minnesota and the Dakotas later this weekend.

That cold air is forecast to spread south and east, with forecasters in places like Texas and Louisiana warning about temperatures well below average next week.

Will the really cold air reach the Carolinas? Meteorologists say it won’t happen before the latter part of next week.

Forecasters say the cold air eventually will move South.

“The much-below-normal temperatures … will gradually expand further to the south and east during the latter part of next week,” said meteorologist Kwan-Yin Kong, also with the Weather Prediction Center.

Kong says there also are indications that moisture from the Gulf of Mexico could spread to parts of the South, possibly in the form of frozen precipitation, by late next week.