You know the weather outlook isn’t good when your resident meteorologist calls it “The Mess.”

“The mess is gonna be this: A lot of wet snow coming in,” Press meteorologist Randy Mann said Tuesday. “You could see 6 to 10 inches — maybe even more — if the temperature stays down a little bit.”

That’s a big “if.”

Mann is predicting measurable snowfall today through Friday, with Thursday being “the big day.” That’s when the wet white stuff is likely to pile up, he said, followed by some possible wet snow mixed with rain or even freezing rain on Friday.

“This could be one of those really challenging storms, especially Thursday,” Mann said, warning that roads will be extremely slick.

For New Year’s, Mann is forecasting cold but clear sailing for the area. He said that’s a trend likely to hold up all or most of next week, before more snow heads this way.

Mann noted that the front end of the holiday delivered as promised with a white Christmas. Mann and climatologist Cliff Harris had earlier assigned a 70 percent likelihood of a white Christmas for the greater Coeur d’Alene area.

“I was worried that it might be just a degree or two too warm,” Mann said, “but we got about 3 inches Christmas Day, which puts us at 28 inches for the season.”

If the storm headed this way delivers, he said, the area could be well over halfway to the normal 70 inches for the entire winter season before January arrives.

As for white Christmases, peering into his extreme long-range viewfinder, Mann went out on a slippery limb — one that won’t gladden the holiday hearts of many readers:

“I think next year it’s going to be different,” he said. “You’ve had three white Christmases in a row; I don’t see a fourth.”

But like all good forecasters, he left the door open to reasonable doubt.

“Of course, a lot can change between now and then,” he said.