A white Christmas is a safe bet in North Dakota, the National Weather Service says.

"It's going to be hard to melt all this snow by Christmas, with all the arctic air," said meteorologist Joshua Scheck at the National Weather Service office in Bismarck.

Temperatures early today were expected to hit 15 below to 20 below in western and central North Dakota, with wind chill factors at 50 below, he said.

The eastern part of the state is expected to be only slightly warmer, with temperatures in the "the negative teens, with a wind chill of minus 30," he said.

"This is a North Dakota winter," he said.

December snowfall totals in Bismarck through Saturday nearly matched the 19.3-inch mark set for all of last winter, Scheck said. Bismarck tallied a total of 31.6 inches of snow before today, the first day of winter.

"The thing about North Dakota is that it's extreme," Scheck said. "For several years, we haven't had an aggressive winter like this.

"And it's not even the first day of winter yet," he said Saturday.

Snow and bitter cold weather has meant brisk business for Kratz Hardware in Valley City, manager Megan Zarbano said. Snow shovels, snow melt, extension cords and space heaters have been hot sellers.

"The last two weeks have been insane," Zarbano said.

The store had plenty of inventory, stockpiled after years of mild winters, she said.

"We haven't had a blizzard-type storm in almost 10 years," she said. "A good storm really shakes people up - they freak out and realize they're not prepared for winter.

"Storms are good for us," she said. "We're as busy as we can be."

Grand Forks got about 5 inches of snow early Saturday, and Fargo reported about an inch less, said meteorologist Jim Kaiser at the National Weather Service in Grand Forks. The snow had begun to taper off Saturday, he said

Wind gusts of about 25 mph in parts of eastern North Dakota reduced visibility on Saturday to less than 1 mile, he said.

"It's nothing real terrible yet," Kaiser said Saturday morning. "There is some concern with blowing snow out in the country, but in town its should be fine."

Kaiser said more snow was forecast in the eastern part of the state.

"We've got another system coming through on Tuesday, but it's a little to early to tell about snow - probably 4 to 6 inches," he said.

Scheck said the southwest part of the state should get the first reprieve from bitter cold temperatures.

"It could break the freezing mark there by Christmas Day," he said.