A quarter-inch of ice or five inches of snow or sleet. Take your pick. That's what's in the cards for Western Maryland - from Washington County west - under the Winter Storm Watch posted today by the National Weather Service.

The bad weather out west will start late Thursday and run into Friday. The watch forecasts temperatures from the upper 20s to the lower 30s for the watch area.

So far, that watch does not extend into metropolitan Baltimore or Washington. But that only means we're not facing the dangerous travel conditions the western counties can expect. Yet. But the weather will turn very crummy Thursday night.

The forecast for Baltimore and its suburbs calls for rain, snow and sleet to begin Thursday evening, changing to rain and sleet after 1 a.m. Friday.  After 1 a.m., the rain and sleet shifts to rain and snow, then to all snow  after 1 p.m. Friday. Nice, huh?

Well, forecasters seem to be dealing with a lot of uncertainty, so we could see anything as a new coastal low develops and moves off Cape Hatteras. The storm is expected to draw colder air in as it departs, which is why they're expecting snow to top off the event. Here's the discussion:

"FREEZING RAIN AND SLEET
TO MIX IN EAST OF THE BLUE RIDGE TO THE I-95 CORRIDOR AND THROUGH
NORTH-CENTRAL MARYLAND ESSENTIALLY AFTER MIDNIGHT [THURSDAY].

"FRIDAY...COASTAL LOW DEVELOPS AND PUSHES OFF THE NC COAST NORTH OF
HATTERAS...BRINGING WRAP AROUND PRECIP SHIELD EAST THROUGH THE [FORECAST AREA]THROUGH FRIDAY AFTERNOON...ANY LINGERING [PRECIP] INTO FRIDAY NIGHT
WOULD BE SNOW OVER THE BAY/SOUTHERN MD...ENDING BEFORE MIDNIGHT. PRECIP
TYPE...COLUMN COOLING TO BRING MOSTLY SNOW /MAYBE SOME FREEZING
RAIN ... ACCUMULATION STILL UNCERTAIN... [ONE MODEL] INDICATES
CHANCES OF OVER AN INCH I-95 AND WEST."