4-letter word -- snow -- being mentioned again

I've been mentioning the arrival of much colder air in the Carolinas for the first two weeks of March, but that might not be the only wintry weather in our future.

There are indications from some of the computer models that we could be facing a repeat performance of our Saturday snowfall from a few weeks back.

The cold air is a certainty. After mild weather Wednesday (maybe 60 degrees), colder air will arrive Thursday, and it will get a few degrees colder each day into the weekend.

Once the chill arrives, it doesn't appear to be leaving anytime soon.

The longer-range computer models predict very cold temperatures -- compared to seasonal norms -- next week. That will be followed in the week of March 11-17 by cold (as compared to very cold) weather. The long-range forecasts indicate we won't return to typical March temperatures until after St. Patrick's Day.

Weekend high temperatures, assuming there's sunshine, will be in the middle 40s. That's about 15 degrees below seasonal averages.

So what about snow?

The Global (GFS) model, which sniffed out our little snowstorm a few weeks ago, is predicting a similar system will cross the Carolinas on Saturday. Temperatures will be cold enough for a few inches of snow once again.

Earlier, there were indications of a second storm around the middle of next week, but that system has disappeared off the longer-range forecasts.

Saturday's storm -- if it in fact comes to fruition -- would be another relatively small system. That's four days away, which means there's plenty of time for the track to change. The area of significant snowfall wouldn't be that large, so a change of 100 miles in the storm track could mean the difference of snow or no snow.

Of course, there's also the possibility that the computer models showing no snow this weekend prove to be correct.

One thing is for sure -- the first half of March won't feature the 80-degree days we had last year.