A series of storms will usher in a week of rain and snow across Northern California, threatening to spoil the end of Thanksgiving weekend for holiday travelers and worrying North Bay residents near areas charred by the Kincade Fire.

The first of the storms, considered part of an “atmospheric river,” is expected to arrive Saturday with breezy winds in the morning and light rain after noon. Rains will pick up in the early evening before soaking the Bay Area and the northern part of the state overnight. The downpour could continue through Tuesday night with a slight break until Thursday morning, when the next storm is expected to arrive.

“For the average person, it’s just going to seem like it’s raining all the time,” said Drew Peterson, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Monterey. “A lot of rain’s coming.”

The next seven days are expected to bring 2 to 5 inches of rain to most of the Bay Area, including 4 to 6 inches in San Rafael, 2 to 3 inches in San Francisco and Oakland, 4 to 6 inches in Santa Cruz, and 3 to 4 in the North Bay, where a flash flood watch has been issued for burn scar areas from the Kincade Fire.

The watch, which advises residents to be on the lookout for flooding and mudslides, begins at 1 a.m. Saturday and continues until 4 p.m. Monday.

Caltrans is pre-emptively shutting down Highway 1 through Big Sur for much of the weekend in anticipation of heavy rains and possible mudslides. The section at Paul’s Slide will close at 5 p.m. Saturday, and the highway at Mud Creek will close at 9 a.m. Sunday.

As it rains in the Bay Area, snow will fall in the Sierra, where ski resorts received anywhere from 20 to 36 inches over the past two days. Another 2 to 3 feet of snow is in the forecast through Monday, when the accumulation of snow is expected to slow. However, flurries are expected to continue, said Idamis Del Valle, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Sacramento.

Authorities are advising travelers who drove to the Sierra for the holiday weekend to head home before Saturday morning or wait until Monday. A winter storm warning has been issued for Saturday afternoon through late Sunday in the Sierra. Whiteout conditions, chain controls, road and highway closures, and lengthy delays are expected.

“The best travel window would be Saturday morning — early Saturday morning,” Del Valle said.

Air travel is also likely to be disrupted by the storm, Peterson said. At San Francisco International Airport, side-by-side runways often force delays in rain or even heavy clouds.

“Anyone flying is going to have a rough time,” Peterson said.

Temperatures in the Bay Area are expected to remain on the chilly side Saturday but should be slightly warmer with highs in the low to mid-50s.

As the weather shifts in less than a month from red-flag fire warnings to winter storm advisories and flash flood warnings, it’s tough to keep up with the changes, meteorologists acknowledged.

“There’s so much going on,” Peterson said. “In a short time we’ve moved from a really dry period to a really wet period.”

Rainfall totals through Thursday show San Francisco International Airport at 1.14 inches for the water year, downtown San Francisco at 1.3 inches, Oakland International Airport at 1.1 inches, downtown Oakland at 1.04 inches, Redwood City at 0.88 of an inch and Mineta San Jose International Airport at 0.89 of an inch.

Michael Cabanatuan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ctuan