Looks like a short but wintry work week ahead. You needed to hear that on your day off, right? Well, National Weather Service forecasters say this big, dry and very cold high-pressure system is slowly moving off to our sotuh and east. That will bring us into a more southerly flow. Don't expect balmy temperatures. It will remain below average for this time of year all week.

But the warmer, wetter weather, coupled with a low-pressure system out of the Great Lakes will bring us some snow after 10 a.m. Tuesday, they say. It will likely change to rain late in the day Tuesday. "Only minor snow/ice accumulations possible," they promise.

Behind that we get another cold front from the upper Midwest, and more dry, sunny weather for Wednesday. But right on its heels they're expecting an Alberta Clipper system from Canada, one of the world's great exporters of weather.

These clippers don't typically bring us a lot of snow. But the air in advance of it will be fairly cold. So when the storm gets cranked up here late Wednesday night, it will start out as snow, and some of it may be pretty heavy, in squalls, if the forecast holds up. "A couple of inches is not out of the question with this system," the forecast discussion says.

The good news is, we're now past the (statistically) coldest days of the year. From here on out, the average daily highs and lows gradually creep upward. Spring may not be in sight, but from here we can begin to imagine it.