Winter-weary Minnesotans are about to get another serving of the season that just doesn't know when to leave.

A storm with "a lot of energy" is bearing down on the state, with several inches of snow in store for certain communities by week's end, the National Weather Service (NWS) said Tuesday.

What's uncertain is just where the deepest snow accumulations will collect, said Jake Beitlich, NWS meteorologist in Chanhassen.

Current forecasts say that the best chance to "see several inches of snow" starting Friday is north of a line stretching from Alexandria east to St. Cloud and onto Lake Mille Lacs, Beitlich said.

However — caveat warning ahead — the storm's path could shift and push the colder weather and the snow farther south toward the Twin Cities.

"Certainly, there is a fair chance for the Twin Cities to have white lawns by the time the weekend's over," Beitlich said.

If not snow, the folks in the warm underbelly should expect "a little bit of thunder and a lot of rain — an inch to an inch and a half," he said.

Rain or snow, wind gusts as high as 35 miles per hour are in the forecast, the NWS said.

In defiance of the calendar, this storm is just the latest in a string of wintry wallops for the Twin Cities and elsewhere in Minnesota.

"Spring has to come, I keep telling myself," Beitlich said.

The Weather Service's followers on Twitter reacted with an animated GIF-storm of their own: