It's beginning to look a lot like winter in the Ottawa area, with snow on the ground Monday and a big storm expected Wednesday.

The area could be hit by as much as 20 centimetres of snow Wednesday, according to Environment Canada.

It is going to get colder, too, with temperatures of -12 C by the end of the week.

"You can expect in the Ottawa area snow beginning Wednesday morning, and with this type of storm, we're probably going to see snow changing over to rain later in the day," said David Rogers, a meteorologist with Environment Canada, on Monday.

"But before it changes over to rain, we could see between 10 and 20 centimetres of snow piling up. So, a pretty significant storm in the way," Rogers said.

Even after the rainfall, Rogers said, Ottawa can expect some snow on the ground into the weekend.