Tuesday brought an inch to several inches of snow to most parts of the region, a much smaller scale precursor to a wintry mix on tap that could drop up to a half-foot of snow Friday into Saturday.

“We’re getting stuff out of the way this morning,” Dan Pydynowski, a senior meteorologist with AccuWeather, said Tuesday. “It looks a dry day for Christmas Eve into Christmas Day, but on Friday, that’s the day we have to worry about.”

Siblings Jake and Zayden Heckman of Weissport spent the latter portion of their mornings cleaning snow on the 200 block of Park Street.

“After shoveling, I’ll play football in the snow with my brother,” said Zayden, 11, a student at Lehighton Area Middle School. “Then, I’ll look up my football card values and play video games.”

Zayden’s older brother, Jake, had a similar game plan.

“Just shoveling, then playing football in the snow, just having fun in the snow,” said Jake, 13, also a student at Lehighton Area Middle School. “Just enjoying it while it stays.

Pydynowski said that it looks like a winter storm likely will affect the area at some point Friday afternoon.

“Precipitation moves in, probably in the form of snow,” he said. “It’s going to be one of those sloppy snows where the snow probably transitions to a mixed bag of sleet and freezing rain Friday evening into Friday night.”

On a positive note, Pydynowski said he believes that the weather event will begin winding down for the area by sunrise Saturday.

“If you’re doing shopping or errands or have relatively short trips, I definitely recommend to take care of that stuff Friday morning if you’re able to do, the earlier the better,” he said. “When the precipitation arrives Friday afternoon, it will be pretty cold. Paved surfaces, roads and sidewalks; it’s going to accumulate. (So) if you have errands or trips you need to make, Friday’s kind of the time to do it.”

Pydynowski said conditions generally should be improving Saturday morning, maybe some precipitation lingering, but aside from that, it should dry out, with temperatures near freezing by Saturday afternoon.

On Sunday, he said temperatures will come up, with highs in upper 30s near 40, and there might be chance for rain at some point.

“In terms of worrying about snow and ice on the roads, later Friday afternoon into Friday night and into Saturday morning is certainly the worst of it,” Pydynowski said. “As precipitation ends and temperatures come up, it improves Saturday and Sunday.”

As for the anticipated storm on Friday, Pydynowski said the weather forecast is no surprise.

“Late December, we’re right in the thick of when you might expect snow and ice in the area,” he said. “We’re getting right into the heart of winter, so we’re right on cue.”