“The snow doesn't give a soft white damn whom it touches.” – E.E. Cummings.

At least according to preliminary forecasts from Weather.com and the National Weather Service, a significant storm is headed toward New England for most of Friday and into Saturday afternoon.

According to both services, most of Friday will feature freezing rain, sleet and rain, with the NWS calling for gusts up to 39 miles per hour. The rain would give way to snow toward the end of the day, although a time for the switch hasn’t been specified yet.

Weather.com singles out major cities like Boston and New York City as ones that could get significant snowfall. However, totals have not been bandied about yet. The NWS is a bit more conservative, calling for 0.5 to 0.75 inches of rain on Friday, followed by 0.75 to 1 inch on Friday night.

Of course, Friday is still 48 hours away, so all of this is subject to change, for better or worse. Consider this the early warning and what not.

 “A lot of people like snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water.” – Carl Reiner.