The Washington State Department of Transportation spent Wednesday preparing trucks for the harsh winter that many are predicting, WSDOT said on their website.

Crews dusted off snow gear and converted their year-round, do-everything trucks to snowplows, WSDOT said. They attached plow blades, sand and salt spreaders and anti-icer sprayers, and calibrated their equipment.

A La Niña weather pattern is on its way this winter and is expected to dump much more snow than usual in the lowlands of the Cascade Mountains, according to a new University of Washington study.

KIRO 7 Eyewitness News' weather team has been warning of the impending La Niña for several weeks, too.

"The odds of snow west of the Cascades rise sharply in winters like the one heading our way," said KIRO 7 Chief Meteorologist Rebecca Stevenson. "And it could come early -- and often."

KIRO 7's weather team did an in-depth analysis of what to expect this winter during a special called Winter's Warning. You can watch the entire special on our Winter's Warning home page.