It's too early for THIS!

Forecasters still expect rain to develop tonight, and for Saturday to dawn with cold, rainy conditions before the sun returns at midday.

But no matter how bad our weather seems tonight and Saturday morning, we're catching a break.

The low pressure system forecast to form off the Carolinas and move up the East Coast is predicted to bring heavy snow -- yes, heavy snow -- to parts of the Mid Atlantic and Northeast.

It's only Oct. 28, for crying out loud! It's too early for this.

Sure, the record books show a number of late-October storms along the East Coast, but it's been several decades since anything like this happened.

Several cities in a path from northern Virginia to New England are forecast to get between 6 and 10 inches of snow, and an inch or two is expected to accumulate on grassy areas even in major cities like Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and Boston.

Places in line for the really heavy snow include Frederick, Md.; Scranton, Pa.; and Hartford. This will be a heavy wet snow, accompanied by strong winds. In fact, a high wind watch is posted for Boston, where gust of 50 to 60 mph are possible Sunday. So the combination of wet snow and high winds will create a threat of downed trees and widespread power outages.

Like I said ... we're getting off easy this time.

The big picture responsible for this storm is the same old story ... a trough over the eastern United States. That trough is the reason why tropical storms were steered away from the U.S. mainland this summer, and it was a big player in our weather during the first two months last winter.

The trough creates a steering current that brings cold air into the East, and storms tend to form on the edge of the trough path, along the coast.

It ought to be interesting to check out the field conditions Saturday for a couple of college football games, like Fordham-Army, where a foot of snow is expected; and West Virginia-Rutgers, where it will be rain, but with 35 mph winds.