'Stronger, Wetter System' Incoming: Washington Weather Forecast

WASHINGTON — After the wild, snowy weekend the Puget Sound had last week, it was nice to have a relatively calm work week. But Washington winters hate to stay too comfortable.

The National Weather Service says starting overnight Saturday, a wet and active weather system will be pushing its way into Western Washington - and it'll be sticking around at least through Tuesday morning.

However, a rainshadow should protect the interior Puget Sound from most of the action: most of Kitsap, King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties are expected to see between half an inch to an inch of rain. It's the Olympic Peninsula that'll bear the brunt of the storm, with three to four inches of rain predicted from Forks to Quinault.

That said, the rainshadow won't completely protect the sound from all the action. Sunday and Monday are expected to be particularly breezy, with winds ranging from 20 to 25 mph for most of Pierce County, and up to 25 to 30 in the Seattle area. Gusts will be between 25 and 40 mph for the region.

As usual, rain in the lowlands will cause problems for the passes. The weather service says to expect up to a foot of snow in Snoqualmie pass. White Pass and Stevens Pass both have it worse, seeing an estimated 12 to 18 inches of snow before Tuesday. The heavy snow forecast has pushed the NW Avalanche Center to issue an avalanche warning for the central cascades. The warning will expire at 6 p.m. Sunday.

As often happens after several consecutive days of rain, forecasters say there is a chance rivers may start flooding by Monday or Tuesday. In particular, they say to be wary along the Skokomish and Chehalis River basins, but other rivers will need to be monitored as well.

On the positive side, once Tuesday has passed Western Washington will see a reprieve Wednesday with a brief break between weather systems. Unfortunately, the emphasis there is on 'brief' as another weather system is expected to move in by the end of the week.