A storm system that began in Colorado Thursday afternoon could dump as much as a foot of snow on western North Dakota this weekend.

But it won't get that deep here, meteorologists are predicting.

The central area of the state, Bismarck, Minot and Jamestown, probably will see about 4-5 inches this weekend, said Janine Vining, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Bismarck.

Vining said Friday that for the Dickinson and Williston areas, precipitation was expected to start sometime after midnight and leave between six to 12 inches of snow by Sunday night.

In the Bismarck area, rain is expected today, possibly freezing rain, changing into snow sometime in the afternoon. It's expected the snow will fall today into Sunday with conditions exacerbated by 20-35 mile per hour winds that will start tonight and continue into Sunday.

The system is expected to approach southwest Ontario Sunday night and by Monday it will probably be all over. The white stuff, that is. The cold stays, and gets colder, with Monday's high about 15 degrees and the low Monday at about zero to 5 degrees above.

Tuesday's low is expected to be about zero, too.

But that's the lowest low expected in Bismarck despite earlier talk of sub-zero temperatures next week.

Areas north won't be so lucky. It's expected Williston could see minus 10 Monday night, and a low of minus 5 Tuesday night, before things start to get warmer.

Today's high in Bismarck is expected to be in the low 30s, and today's low is predicted to be in the mid to upper teens. Sunday's high will be in the low to mid 20s and Sunday's low will be around 10 degrees, Vining said.