Government forecasters are predicting a warmer-than-average winter for the much of the nation's midsection and a dry one for the Southeast.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says the warm area covers a wide stretch, extending from western New York and Pennsylvania down to northern Georgia, across Michigan, southern Wisconsin and southeastern South Dakota, down through Colorado and Nebraska and all the way to New Mexico.

NOAA's Climate Prediction Center says other areas of the country have equal chances of being warmer or cooler than normal.

Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Arkansas are forecast to have a wetter than normal season, while the southeastern and Gulf Coast state are expected to be drier. The dry area stretches west across Texas all the way to Arizona.