I'm looking at sunshine over the State Pen this morning, with temperatures headed into the mild-for-December 50s this afternoon. But don't be fooled. There is rain ahead later today, with a surge of cold air plus snow showers on tap for the weekend.

The best news for snow-haters is that next week's storm is beginning to look a lot more like rain than snow.

Forecasters out at Sterling say there's a cold front headed our way later today, bringing rain and showers across the Appalachians around rush hour this evening. Higher elevations to our west could see a changeover to snow.

Behind the front there's more colder, drier Canadian air, s tomorrow will be sunny. But temperatures will stall out around 40 degrees in Baltimore. They'll drop to the low 20s Friday night, and may not leave the 30s on Saturday, even with some sunshine.

Another disturbance slides through late Saturday into Sunday, and depending on how strong it turns out to be, we'll see precipitation, likely in the form of snow in the Baltimore region, given the cold temperatures, forecasters say.

"Best chance of accumulations will be across the highlands, where winter weather advisory criteria may be achieved," they say in this morning's discussion. "However, there is a chance for light accumulations of snow to extend further east across the rest of the [forecast area] all the way to the Chesapeake Bay."

Sunday looks cloudy and cold, too, with a high in the upper 30s. Overnight temps will fall again to the low 20s. It will be a cold night at the stadium.

Sunshine returns Monday, with highs near 40 again. But models show the next storm system moving into the region Tuesday into Wednesday.

"This appears to be primarily a rain event," the morning discussion says. "However, if precipitation moves in early enough Tuesday morning, then some wintry precipitation is possible at the onset. Specifics will become more clear [as] we move closer in time to next week."

Here's AccuWeather.com's Henry Margusity's long-range discussion of the chances for a powerful and very cold winter storm next week.