As Twin Cities residents wave farewell to a record-breaking February, March is about to take the baton and sprint out of the blocks with a snowy start before dawn Friday, continuing throughout the day.

The latest forecast from the National Weather Service (NWS) is calling for light snow to arrive in the Twin Cities from western Minnesota and keep falling into early evening.

The weather service is anticipating a total of 2 to 4 inches for the Twin Cities and into western Wisconsin. An earlier forecast had the range a tad deeper at 3 to 5 inches.

The full width of southern Minnesota, buried earlier this week under a foot of more of snow, should expect 2 to 3 more inches.

With no snow on Thursday, the month's total for the metro appears locked in at 39, 12½ inches above the previous record for a February set in 1962. In fact, there has been more snow in the Twin Cities this month than in seven entire snowfall seasons since 2002-03.

And for all months, February 2019 ranks fourth all time in the Twin Cities, a mere 1 inch shy of tying March 1951 for bronze-medal honors but well short of the top of the heap when November 1991 raced out of the chute with the famed Halloween blizzard.

Along with persistent snowfall, cold temperatures will persist for the foreseeable future in the metro area, according to the NWS. Highs will remain well below average starting Thursday and getting only colder through the weekend. Sunday's high will struggle to get into positive territory.

After that, there's no snow after Friday for the Twin Cities as far as the seven-day forecast can see.