A new storm brewing in the Gulf of Mexico, and the relatively cold air in place in our region, should combine to bring us a bit of snow in the morning, forecasters say. But there's not a lot of hope - for those in need of a snow day - for any significant accumulations.

UPDATE: 4 p.m.:  Or maybe there is. The NWS has issued a WInter Weather Advisory that says the I-95 corridor could see up to an inch on the ground in the morning, with several inches to our west as the day wears on. Snow will change over to sleet, freezing rain and rain during the afternoon, but not as early as earlier forecasts (below) suggested.

EARLIER: The storm is spinning up in the northern Gulf today, and is expected to move across the Florida panhandle into the Atlantic, just off the Carolina coast, by tomorrow afternoon. That will supply the precipitation.

The cold air is already in place, with a forecast low tonight in the mid-20s. That will set the stage for snowfall in the morning hours, at least until temperatures start to warm up during the day. NWS forecasters at Sterling are saying it will be all snow until around 10 a.m., and mix with rain until about noon. By then enough warm air will have pushed into the region, and worked its way down to the surface, to change it all to rain.

The farther west you are - west of I-95 - the later the changeover will occur, they say. In any case, they're saying "little or no snow accumulation expected." But this is the sort of winter scenario that is notoriously hard to predict with confidence in these parts. So we could wake to slippery roads, or just wet.

The highest likelihood for prolonged wintry precip is in western Virginia.