A wet and white Christmas is in the forecast for Butler County and the rest of Southwestern Pennsylvania this year, according to the National Weather Service.

A wet and white Christmas is in the forecast for Butler County and the rest of Western Pennsylvania.

Christmas Eve will be a rainy, windy day with a 100% chance of precipitation and wind gusts reaching 30 mph, according to the National Weather Service.

The forecast calls for 1.5 to 1.8 inches of rainfall from Thursday through 7 a.m. Christmas Day from the North Hills area of Allegheny County to Northwestern Pennsylvania.

The weather goes downhill after Thursday's daytime high of 48 degrees drops to 16 degrees and the rain turns to snow Thursday night.

The NWS has issued a winter weather advisory from 7 p.m. Thursday to 1 p.m. Christmas Day.

“In Butler, total accumulation is 3 to 5 inches. A lot of that will be overnight Christmas Eve and early Christmas morning,” said Lee Hendricks, a meteorologist for the NWS office in Pittsburgh.

Scattered snow showers with little or no accumulation are possible Christmas Day. The temperature will remain cold with a high of 21 degrees with wind gusts up to 21 mph under mostly cloudy skies.

This is a breaking news report — read more in Thursday's Butler Eagle.