By late morning, you could very well be seeing the first flakes of another load of snow.

Thanks for nothing, Punxsutawney Phil.

Yes, the very day the furry forecaster saw his shadow at Gobbler's Knob, the National Weather Service in Spokane issued a winter storm warning for North Idaho, beginning at 10 a.m. today through 4 p.m. Saturday.

"All the collisions were happening over us," meteorologist Randy Mann said Thursday, explaining the heavy dumps of snow the area received earlier this season. "Those have all moved south. We're going to get that back."

Mann said cold air has been pushed over North Idaho, which has been having a dry spell this past week. This dry cold has been mixing with warm weather from the south, causing heavy snow to return.

"We could get 6 inches easy out of this thing," he said. "Snow all day."

The National Weather Service called for 4-8 inches of snow in the valleys with 8-13 inches in the mountains. Although the storm warning begins at 10 a.m., the steadier snow is predicted to begin in the afternoon and continue through the night.

“Heavy snow on roads Friday and Saturday will create treacherous driving conditions,” NWS stated Thursday.

Despite the groundhog foreseeing six wintry weeks ahead, Mann said it won't be as severe as what North Idaho experienced in the first half of the season — only about half as snowy.

"It's a change in the weather pattern from what we had six weeks ago," he said. "It's a new pattern. It's not going to be as moist, not as cold. We're going to start seeing a milder and drier one."

Mann said rain and near-40-degree weather will follow the early weekend snow, making for "a slushy mess" through Super Bowl Sunday. The rain is expected to be followed by snow showers into the week, then more rain.

"It's going to be a back and forth rain-type weather for the month of February," he said.