Will it Snow? Will it Snow? Will it Snow?

If you’re lucky this weekend, you’ll stick out your tongue and catch a snowflake.

Low-falling snow may tempt our Mediterranean-climate-loving selves to play hooky on Friday, Bay Area meteorologists are saying.

From the Santa Cruz Mountains to the Mt. Diablo range, from Mount Madonna to Mount St. Helena, meteorologists predict snow will be falling on anything above 1,000 feet Thursday night.

By Friday night, scattered precipitation could deliver snow at sea level in some spots—depending on when the really cold temperatures arrive.

“It has to be the right combination of factors, in just the right sequence,” said Jan Null, meteorologist with Golden Gate Weather Service. “First, you need the cold air, then the precipitation, not just cold rain.”

 The last time just the right combination came together was 35 years ago, Feb. 5, 1976, when a broad cold front spread snow all over the Bay Area. Before that, snowfall on Jan. 15, 1962 brought less than an inch, just a few months after our current U.S. president was born.

The heaviest precipitation arrives to the Bay Area on Thursday and is predicted to be over before very cold air arrives that would bring snow lower. The best guess is only a 50:50 chance, but you never know in the weather business.

“The temperatures are going to be a bigger story after that,” said Null. He expects a hard freeze Saturday morning to Sunday, with lots of 20-degree readings across the Bay Area.

Still, on Friday morning you could very well see Mt. Tam —at 2,400 feet—quite covered with snow, Null said.

As for our own Mount St. Helena, its snowy 4,342 peak is likely to mean trouble for motorists traveling between Napa and Lake counties on Highway 29, where snowfall closed the road overnight just a week ago.

“We recommend you have a back-up plan if you go over mountains for your commute,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Steve Anderson.

“It's just going to be a mess Friday morning,” Anderson said. “People will be trying to get over mountains and they won't be able to get over.”

If you do find yourselves heading to the nearby hills on Friday, feel free share your photos with Napa Patch here -- just upload them right to the article.