Is it the flu? Is it just a terrible cold?

Jared Littmann, the new mayor of Annapolis, is facing potentially the biggest winter storm to hit in a decade, starting with snow and then turning to ice late in the day on Sunday.

And, in a phone interview while working from home Friday, he sounded awful.

“My son had the flu over Christmas, and I don’t have those symptoms, so it feels like a cold,” Littmann said. “And, honestly, it’s so rare for me to have a sick day. I don’t typically get sick.”

For a sick guy — coughing and congestion were part of the interview — the mayor had a solid grip on what’s ahead.

The National Weather Service backed down the forecast for snow in Annapolis, until it was 6-10 inches. Temperatures are expected to be dangerously low into next week.

If the storm affecting millions of people on the East Coast drops a lot of sleet and ice on the city, it could be days before it’s safe to travel.

A storm is always a test for a new mayor.

Getting ready for potentially deadly weather probably wasn’t on Littmann’s mind when he took office in December. Getting this wrong, though, could expend a lot of the goodwill every mayor enjoys when he or she takes office.

It seems unlikely residents will cut him slack because he’s new on the job, and the fact that he’s sick probably won’t make much difference, either.

Annapolis, a city where it only sometimes snows, always struggles to clear out after a big winter storm.

“I don’t think our citizens want us to spend the money that it would take to be as if we were Buffalo, New York, and had all the trucks to be very quick about clearing,” Littmann said.

So there’s a lesser way.

The plan involves paying for 228 hours of labor by city staff and contractors every day until the conditions clear. The city has 1,000 tons of road salt and 11,000 gallons of brine, and crews began spreading it Saturday morning.

Much of the work is coordinated by longtime Emergency Management Director Kevin Simmons, a firefighter for years before taking the job.

But the work involves employees at public works, the police and fire departments, central services, rec and parks, finance and even the city clerk’s office (the mayor declared a state of emergency at noon Saturday). He won’t be driving a truck, but Littmann will be busy.

“While I can’t guarantee what happens with the weather and how quickly people’s streets will get plowed and cleared, I can tell people that I am proud of the employees that we have in the effort being put in to be prepared,” the mayor said.

His predecessor, Gavin Buckley, described the city staff he was handing over as “battle tested.” Littmann agreed, even though he’s still deciding what changes to make.

“For this emergency? Yes.”

Mayors, at least the smart ones, come into the job aware of the complexities a major storm brings. Annapolis is just more familiar with the warm-weather kind.

A year ago, 7 inches fell on the city. That’s at the shallow end of the prediction for this storm, and there were lots of complaints.

The ice could make the impact more like 2016, when Snowzilla swept Maryland on Jan. 22-23 and dropped 29.8 inches at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport.

That storm shut down Annapolis streets for days. Heavy snow atop the flat roof of the old Annapolis library damaged the lining. Although it didn’t collapse, it leaked — and the library didn’t reopen until April.

Then-Mayor Mike Pantelides led the response, and the city struggled to clear secondary and residential streets. A major problem was there was so much snow there was no room to plow it aside.

Crews hauled tons of it to Truxtun Park, where it took months to melt.

Pantelides declared a state of emergency, ordering people off the streets. Midshipmen emerged from the Naval Academy with snow shovels to clear sidewalks and driveways.

There was complaining, lots of it, but most people recognized the city was responding to a historic storm.

Littmann hasn’t set a benchmark for success with this storm, other than being prepared. Residents can track plows and get estimates on when roads will be cleared on the city website.

Anne Arundel County plows roads outside the city, a vastly larger job. It tracks the progress, too.

There’s less at stake for County Executive Steuart Pittman, who is in his final year in office.

By declaring a state of emergency on Saturday, Littmann ordered all vehicles off key roads to make plowing easier. Any left on the streets were subject being towed.

He also asked Gov. Wes Moore for two National Guard units. They’ll provide high clearance vehicles to help police and firefighters and be accompanied by city staff.

When the snow turns to ice, the job of cleaning up will be much harder. It also increases the possibility of trees falling and power lines collapsing.

“Then it’s going to be heavy, wet snow and ice on top of snow that will make it more difficult for everybody,” Littmann said.

One difference between this storm and the one 10 years ago is the Annapolis sidewalk policy.

Property owners and occupants have to clear snow and ice from the sidewalks in front of their homes within three hours of a storm ending or 11 a.m. if it falls overnight.

It’s a $100 fine for failing to do it. The county upped its fines, too.

Littmann said Annapolis’ ordinance will be enforced, and that might affect public judgment of the city response. Who knows? Maybe there will be a little grace if it gets bad enough.

For Pantelides, the snow might have played a role in his defeat the following year, although there were bigger factors at play.

One thing is clear. Sick or not, Littmann has moved from hardware store owner to mayor.

I asked him if I could still get a bag of salt at his family’s store.

“I have no idea,” he said, laughing. “Ask my wife.”