Double-shot of cold fronts hitting Florida's MLK weekend. How cold will it get?

Cold, rain, freezing cold. Two cold fronts, one after the other, are forecast to bring blustery winds, rain, and some of the coldest nights of the year to the Sunshine State's relatively warm winter over the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day weekend, with some areas of the state dropping down into the 30s.

Further north, a winter storm that AccuWeather calls a "Saskatchewan screamer" and the Weather Channel has nicknamed Izzy dumped snow across the upper Midwest U.S. Friday and is likely to produce "major travel headaches" from North Dakota down to northern Georgia and up to Maine.

"And that system, the center is going to stay to our north, but it's going to drag a pretty strong cold front," said Kevin Rodriguez, meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Melbourne. "We're going to have a couple of days of below-normal temperatures."

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Here's what you need to know.

How cold is it going to get in Florida this weekend?

The first front, the tail of a system coming out of Canada that could drop snow as far south as Georgia, is expected to bring temps in the low-to-mid 40s Friday night across the Panhandle, Central Florida and the northeast coast. The west coast should be slightly warmer, with lows in the 50s.

After a warmer and very wet weekend, the coldest temps will hit Monday night, with most of the northern part of the state expected to drop into the 40s -- the western Panhandle is expected to be slightly colder -- and lows into the 30s for most of the Panhandle, northern and inland central Florida Monday night.

Daytime temperatures over the weekend are expected to hover around the 60s and 70s, forecasters said.

Will it snow in Florida this weekend?

Unlikely, but showers and thunderstorms are forecast to sweep across the state Saturday and Sunday and scattered frost is expected in the area.

What will the weekend weather be like in the rest of the U.S.?

As of Friday morning, more than 50 million Americans were under some level of winter weather alert, according to the National Weather Service. The alerts stretched from North Dakota to as far south as Georgia, then up into the Northeast in Pennsylvania.

Major travel disruptions are expected with the storm throughout the MLK Day holiday weekend, AccuWeather said.

After pasting the Upper Midwest with up to a foot of snow in some areas on Friday, the storm is forecast to dive into the South on Saturday and into Sunday, spreading snow into cities such as Memphis and Nashville, Tennessee, Charlotte, North Carolina, and possibly even as far south as Georgia, which might break Atlanta's nearly four-year streak without measurable snow.

"Parts of North and South Carolina, as well as portions of Virginia where amounts could easily exceed half an inch of ice” could face the biggest threat from icy precipitation, AccuWeather chief meteorologist Jonathan Porter said.

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What is a "Saskatchewan screamer"?

That's AccuWeather's name for this storm. It's similar to their term "Alberta Clipper," which they use to refer to a winter storm that originates from or near the Canadian province of Alberta. According to AccuWeather, the term "clipper" came from clipper sailing ships because of their quick speeds.

"An Alberta Clipper, or clipper for short, is a low-pressure system that develops on the lee side of the Canadian Rockies (in Alberta)," according to the AccuWeather website, "gets caught up in the jet stream and travels southeastward into the northern Plains, on through the Great Lakes and eventually off the mid-Atlantic coast into the Atlantic Ocean."

"A Saskatchewan screamer is similar to an Alberta clipper, except that it forms in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan," explained AccuWeather Meteorologist Jessica Storm.

Will my flight get canceled?

While Florida will avoid the ice and snow, be aware that the storm will bring major disruptions to travel elsewhere, shipping, supply chains and COVID-19 testing.

"We're already dealing with so many shortages of products at some supermarkets, that we're going to be concerned about supermarkets being able to keep the products that consumers need across many parts of the affected areas," Porter explained.

Previously: 60M+ Americans in path of massive winter storm; snow and ice to cause major travel disruptions

Does it ever snow in Florida?

More than you might think. Just days ago the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office captured video of sort-of snowfall, tweeting from @ocsoalerts and posting it on its Facebook page.

In December 1984, a rare ice storm hit St. Augustine, prompting area officials to urge residents to stay home.

Snow in Jacksonville in December 1989:

Snow and ice over the years in Northwest Florida:

Snow in Escambia County in December 2017:

Will Florida set a record for coldest weather this weekend?

No. On Jan. 18, 1981, temperatures dropped into the 20s in parts of Florida.

In fact, this weekend's cold front is a momentary break in Florida's eighth-warmest year in 127 years of records, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Florida’s average temperature of 72.3 degrees in 2021 was 2.2 degrees warmer than the mean base period of 1901-2000.

Contributors: Thomas Weber, Treasure Coast Newspapers; Kimberly Miller, The Palm Beach Post; Doyle Rice, USA TODAY, Cheryl McCloud, USA TODAY Network

C. A. Bridges is a Digital Producer for the USA TODAY Network, working with multiple newsrooms across Florida. Local journalists work hard to keep you informed about the things you care about, and you can support them by subscribing to your local news organization. Read more articles by Chris here and follow him on Twitter at @cabridges

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Florida weather on Martin Luther King Day weekend expected to be cold