The region is likely in for a whopper of a storm.

Weather officials as of Thursday are predicting 6 to 12 inches potentially mixed with sleet starting late Saturday night and throughout most of the day Sunday.

Based on the current projections, heavy snowfall is likely to happen during that time frame, according to Peyton Simmers, a meteorologist with AccuWeather.

“What we’re looking at, it could be a doozy of a storm that could arrive late Saturday night and Sunday to the area (along the) East Coast, bringing a good amount of snow with it,” Simmers said. “We are getting concerned about some mixing potential, some sleet that mixes in during the duration of this storm.”

Simmers said it could be after midnight Saturday into Sunday when the snow could start to overspread and continue into Sunday morning and pick up.

From that point, he said the snow will continue to fall pretty much all day Sunday, and may not fully exit the region until late Sunday night into Monday morning.

Because of that, traveling Sunday is expected to be hazardous, Simmers cautioned.

“If you must travel, increase their following distance, don’t slam on their brakes; if they get into a fishtail, turn into the direction you want to go and go slowly,” he said. (“It’s going to be) poor conditions, not good.”

Simmers offered advice on how people should approach their clean up efforts with this type of storm.

“For people shoveling snow, it’s important they take breaks,” Simmers said. “It is a very strenuous job; this will be a powdery snow, so it is important that people do stay hydrated, and they take breaks when they shovel.

“This could be a long duration. Go out multiple times so that you’re not moving it all at once, which makes it harder to do.”

A winter storm watch is in effect from late Saturday night through Monday afternoon.

Plan on slippery road conditions and possible power outages. The hazardous conditions could impact the Monday morning commute.

This weekend’s anticipated storm would continue a recent pattern of snowfall occurring on weekends of late.

Just this past weekend, most of the region received 8 to 10 inches of snow.

“It’s just part of an overall cold and active pattern that we’ve kind of been stuck in,” Simmers said. “Even behind this storm, it’s still going to be pretty cold.”

So cold, in fact, that Simmers said we could very well have just highs in the teens and low single digits, “So cold is going to be the main story.”

Today was expected to be warm with highs near 40, before the cold returns Friday with highs in the upper 20s, he said.

Simmers said highs are only expected to be in the teens Saturday and Sunday, with Monday barely hitting 20 and Tuesday back in the teens.

“The cold is going to stay locked in place through the end of this month,” he added.