it appears the energy configuration as it crosses the rocky mountains is a complete crapshoot. None of the models agree with one another in that regard. I think we need the energy to come out in such a way that it involves a middle piece phasing in with a northern piece and deepening/closing off as it drops southeast from Missouri to South Carolina. That's the only way the core of the upper low/trough will be cold enough to support snow. We also need to energy to zip on through the great plains and get here quick to capitalize on the decent boundary layer temps we have from the residual high pressure left behind from that front that moves through tomorrow. (ideally we need the meat of the precip to arrive late friday night/early saturday morning).
What we don't want is a coherent southern piece of energy to come out and phase in with a middle piece that leads the wave sharpening in to a strong closed low towards the gulf states/florida with not nearly enough cold air to produce anything but rain. Also it appears the models focusing in on the southern piece are slower in general with the track of the trough/low and thus allow temps to warm even more. The ukmet is the slowest of all b/c it just has the southern piece diving south/occluding and spinning around over Southern Texas Sunday morning... (seems to be the extreme outlier at the moment).
FWIW, honestly the best "agreement" right now is between the cmc/gfs/icon as they all have somewhat similar evolution of the various pieces. Euro/jma are similar to each with a slower/further south cut off low. The Ukmet is all alone with the due south moving, then stationary closed low over texas.