By John Schwing

WESTPORT — S’no foolin’. The snowy forecast is no joke.

After several winters with snowfall that could barely be measured, southwestern Connecticut is expected to be blanketed by up to 4 inches of snow from a storm moving across the region Saturday afternoon into late Sunday morning.

A “Winter Weather Advisory” issued for the Westport  area by the National Weather Service warns snow is expected to begin falling about 4 p.m. Saturday, and driven by wind gusts clocked at 25 mph, will accumulate from 2 to 4 inches through just before noon Sunday.

Rain also may mix with snow overnight, according to the forecast, contributing to the “Coastal Flood Advisory” issued by the NWS for the area from 5 to 10 a.m. Sunday.

Saturday’s high temperature should reach the upper-30s and fall just below freezing overnight, according to the forecast.

As of early Saturday, the weather service forecast predicts that coastal Connecticut should be spared the brunt of a winter wallop expected to dump at least 7 to 8 inches of snow across inland sections of the state, and even higher accumulations farther north and to the west.

The storm and cloudy skies should clear from this region by Sunday evening, and Monday is expected to be sunny with a daytime high temperature of about 40 degrees.

Tuesday, however, is expected to see more stormy weather — this time, rain — starting in the afternoon and continuing Wednesday morning, the weather service predicts.

Power disruptions can be reported online at Eversource.com or by calling 800-286-2000. Customers who signed up for the power company’s two-way texting feature can send a text to report an outage and receive outage updates as they happen.