Having spent much of the last year working to make sure the state's public transportation system does not repeat the failures of last winter, Gov. Charlie Baker and the MBTA will get the first chance to test their new procedures as wintry weather rolls into the Bay State overnight into Tuesday.

"We've done a ton of work to prepare for the winter and I anticipate that that work will be put to good use starting tonight," Baker said.

The National Weather Service predicts snow and sleet accumulations to total two to four inches in much of the state, and a "slushy" one to two inches along the coast.

"This has been quite the complicated event to forecast with the temperatures both at the ground and aloft greatly affecting the (precipitation types) and their accumulations," NWS meteorologists wrote in a forecast Monday afternoon. "However, despite the uncertainties and complications because of the timing of this event and the mixed nature of the precipitation this is going to wreak havoc on the Tuesday morning commute."

The storm has been designated a "tier one" storm, the lowest on a new Department of Transportation five-tier storm ranking system that takes into account total accumulation expected, total snow already on the ground and post-storm weather forecasts, Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack said.

"We're obviously expecting a sloppy commute tomorrow morning, and people are going to need to be patient and people are going to need to be careful," Pollack said Monday morning. "The storm will be a test of the MBTA's new storm incident management system. We will activate the storm desk, we will give the public and the press regular updates on the storm ... all the systems have been put in place and this will be a test for us to make sure those systems work."

The "storm desk," a new addition to MassDOT's procedures, will gather weather- and service-related information and send out a combined status report every few hours, T officials have said. The first status report is expected to go out at about 10 p.m. Monday, Pollack said.

The MBTA will use its new track de-icing system overnight to keep Red and Orange Line tracks free of snow and ice, and will position staff and equipment to be ready to handle the morning commute, Baker said.

"As standard protocol, there is a fair amount of back and forth going on between the folks at MEMA and the folks at DOT and the folks in the Governor's Office and the folks at the MBTA," he said Monday afternoon. "Later today we'll have people from the highway department, from the MBTA, from MEMA and the Governor's Office all basically stationed to collaborate and communicate together through the night and into tomorrow morning."

Baker said his administration has been in touch with municipal officials to make sure everyone is prepared. "I think we're taking all the appropriate precautions to be ready for it," he said.

Earlier this month, Baker said that the T is "far better prepared for this winter than we were for last winter," citing the roughly $85 million the state has invested in winter preparedness measures like replacing 10 miles of third rail on the Red and Orange Lines, and preparing snow-clearing equipment for service.