Below Average Temperatures Next Week?

After a solid month of record breaking warmth across much of the eastern two-thirds of the country, a change in the weather pattern is looming for next week. An upper ridge has been responsible for the warmth, but looking ahead to next week, that ridge will amplify. This means the east-west expanse of the warm temperatures will not be as great, but warmer than normal conditions will creep across the Canadian border into southern Alberta and Manitoba Provinces. Below is a comparison of the mean GFS and ECMWF 500mb height forecast. Note troughing still predominant on the west coast and also a pretty deep trough setting up along the east coast. While in good agreement on how deep the trough is, the ECMWF places the axis of the trough a little farther inland, which would mean more of the cold air would be felt in the major cities of the northeast, down into the Carolinas:

In fact, the current European is showing the 0C line all the way down to Jacksonville, FL by Thursday morning...

Over the next 8 days, the GFS 2m Temperature Anomalies are indicating cooler conditions for a majority of the country: