If Christmas wasn't white enough for you, New Year's Day could be more to your taste, but you may have to muddle through some slip-sliding times first.

The National Weather Service is calling for a winter storm to lead up to the New Year's weekend, starting with rain or freezing rain today. That's expected to switch over to snow later today and tonight before tapering off.

The unknown in the coming wintry mix is whether the freezing rain will change over to rain or remain solid and form a layer of ice under the snow.

"A one-, two- or three-degree temperature range could determine how much freezing rain happens," Bill Abeling, a meteorologist in the Bismarck office, said Wednesday.

Bismarck-Mandan's temperature hit 32 degrees Wednesday afternoon, but it will start dropping this morning and continue falling through the holiday weekend. A north wind between 10 and 20 mph is likely today and increasing tonight to between 13 and 21 mph, with gusts as high as 24 mph.

The National Weather Service is calling for less than a half-inch of snow accumulation today and less than an inch tonight in Bismarck-Mandan, with snow remaining in the forecast through Saturday. Bismarck received .03 inches of precipitation on Christmas Eve and another .03 inches Christmas Day.

More snow, 4 to 6 inches, is predicted for north of us.

"Especially in Williston," said Abeling, "and less over toward Bottineau until later when the wind picks up."

For folks with New Year's holiday travel plans who were unable to break away Wednesday, Abeling's advice is to wait until Friday rather than traveling today.

Snow is expected to taper off for Friday, with only a 30 percent chance. The forecast calls for a high around 21, with a north wind between 8 and 11 mph.

And there's a 40 percent chance for another shot of snow on New Year's Day, when the high is expected to hit 9 after a low of 8 below zero.

The work week will start off cold as well. Monday's forecast calls for a low of 9 below and a high near 4.

(Reach reporter Richard Hinton at 250-8256 or outdoors@bismarcktribune.net.)