Updated Wednesday 10:35 p.m.

We began the day with record cold temperatures across much of western Washington. Seattle dropped to 18 overnight, breaking the old record of 22 set in 1975. In other areas, Bellevue dropped to 19, Everett dropped to 15, Tacoma to 20 (although 14 in at McChord AFB), Bremerton to 18, Port Angeles to 17, Oak Harbor and Olympia to 16, Bellingham to 12, and the cold derby winner goes to Arlington, which plummeted to 10 degrees overnight. The coast was the relative warm spot, with lows "only" in the low 20s.

As for the storm moving through Wednesday night, there was a point in the afternoon when we had Steve Pool, Todd Johnson, Jim Castillo and myself all together talking about what to do with the evening forecast, and Steve said, "I think maybe the best way to describe it is a 'wintry mix.'"

I think Steve was right.

The storm is finally moving into the area, with a wintry mix of precipitation arriving just after 8 p.m. -- and we do mean mix.

We're getting various reports of snow, freezing rain, sleet and just plain old rain. It started as freezing rain but changed to a heavy snow in Seattle, with 1-2" already on the ground near the Seattle Center.

Up in Everett, it began as a light snow, went quickly to freezing rain, and has been a sleet/snow/freezing rain mix since, with about 1" accumulation of an icy snow. The Hood Canal area and western Whatcom County areas were also reporting snow.

Meanwhile, it's been straight freezing rain in Port Angeles and Shelton, and just rain along the coast. So travel could be icy for the late evening hours until the warm air mixes out the cold air and this changes to rain, which should occur at or around midnight.

(Freezing rain is super-cooled rain that freezes upon contact with any kind of surface, quickly making a sheen of ice. It's formed when warm air moves in on top of a dense, heavy layer of cold air. Precipitation falls from the cloud as snow, but then melts into rain when it hits the warm layer…then turns into freezing rain when it hits that sub-freezing air near the ground. )

Snow will be more of a factor in the Hood Canal area, the Northwest Interior (north of Everett, Island/San Juan Counties) and the Kitsap Peninsula (especially west), where cold air is more entrenched. A WINTER STORM WARNING remains in effect here, and we are still expecting a little snow and an extended period of freezing rain through Thursday morning.

Temperatures will gradually warm through the night into the mid-upper 30s except stay near freezing where that Winter Storm Warning is in effect. (It's likely our "high" for the day will be at 11:59 p.m.)

Thursday is looking like rain at times to start the day, then tapers to showers by afternoon. But since November will still be here, it won't go that quietly. We will likely see a parting shot in the way of a convergence zone. With some modified cool air coming in behind the front, some flakes might mix in with the rain in Snohomish and north King County, but it's more just a passing reminder of days past as it won't amount to anything.

Highs will generally "warm" into the low-mid 40s.

The showers mostly taper off Thursday night. And with that, November mercifully ends.

December begins with just a few showers in the morning Friday, and then drying for the afternoon. Highs will hit the mid 40s.

Both Saturday and Sunday are looking dry now, with more sunshine on Saturday and more of a cloudier day Sunday with perhaps some sprinkles along the North Coast. A few rain showers return Monday, and then dry again for the middle of next week, where it looks like our only "mix" will be between the sunshine and the clouds :)

(P.S. We've now broken the record for wettest month ever in Seattle, no matter where the rain was recorded. And as so apropos for November, we broke it with the very-rare-for-Seattle freezing rain.)