GRAY – Weather experts are calling it a “tricky forecast.”

We may get snow. We may get sleet and freezing rain. One way or another, it’s going to look a lot like winter.

“Two areas of low pressure will roughly follow the arrows to positions flanking New England by Saturday morning,” the National Weather Service in Gray reported Friday on its Facebook page. “Our area will be left in no man’s land, on the cold side of the southern low and the warm side of the northern low. What falls from the sky will depend mainly on which low pressure becomes strongest.”

Light snow was expected to begin late Friday night. By 7 a.m. Saturday, forecasters said, it will likely change to sleet in southern parts of the state.

Who’s excited? The ski areas.

“Forecasts are all over the map,” according to the Sunday River Mountain Report, “but we ‘re looking at somewhere in the range of 6 to 12 inches over the long weekend. Trust us: The best place to be when the snow hammer drops is slopeside.”

In Carrabassett Valley, the people of Sugarloaf were wishing for more.

“Although it isn’t as much as originally forecasted,” according to their Friday report, “we are still pretty stoked to see 4 to 8 inches of new snow coming in the forecast on Saturday.”

The Weather Service issued a Winter Storm Watch for Friday night through Saturday afternoon for Oxford, Franklin, Somerset, Androscoggin and Kennebec counties, interior Waldo County and northern New Hampshire.

Four to 8 inches of fresh snow are expected, with cold weather in the forecast for next week.

In Lewiston and surrounding towns, Friday night forecasts were calling for nearly 6 inches of snow to go along with the mixed bag.