Winter begins Saturday with valley rain, mountain snow ahead of Christmas

SEATTLE -- Get ready for some wet weather in the valleys and difficult driving conditions over the Cascade mountain passes.

Tuesday will be the last dry for a while as we enter another active weather period from Wednesday into the weekend.

Rain is only along the coast and up north Tuesday, but everyone gets rain Wednesday with a ton of mountain snow too. About a half-foot of snow likely for Wednesday and about 5-9" a likely range for Thursday.

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Rain at times continues into the weekend with more snow for the passes too.

Winter officially begins in our time zone on Saturday at 8:19p. Showers look likely for the first full day of winter on Sunday for the Seahawks game and the first night of Hanukkah.

The good news with this soggy weather pattern is that we're a bit warmer than normal in the afternoon and about 10 degrees above normal in the mornings.