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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Eye On Boise

Snow day: Record snowstorm blankets valley, closes schools

Road grader and sander clear snow from a route in the Boise foothills on Friday morning, amid a record snowstorm (Charlie Russell)
Road grader and sander clear snow from a route in the Boise foothills on Friday morning, amid a record snowstorm (Charlie Russell)

This is a lot of snow for Boise – a lot. Yesterday’s official 3.3 inches broke the record for the date of 2.3 inches set in 1947; plenty more has fallen since then, and schools are closed across the valley. There’s more than 6 inches here in the Boise foothills; Bogus Basin so far has gotten just under 4 inches. Ada County Sheriff’s dispatch reported 237 weather-related slide-offs and crashes yesterday; this morning, as of 9 a.m. it had responded to another 44 weather-related crashes, five with injuries, and four slide-offs since midnight. KBOI Radio has a list of school closures here.

According to the National Weather Service, the official snowfall total for Boise reached 5.6 inches at 9:20 this morning, and it’s still snowing hard. Lowman has received 14 inches. A winter storm warning is in effect until 2 p.m.; the forecast calls for rain and snow with a chance of freezing rain, and temperatures rising to 35 to 40 later today, with the chance of precipitation near 100 percent. Tonight’s forecast is mostly cloudy with a chance of snow showers in the evening and temperatures falling into the teens.



Betsy Z. Russell
Betsy Z. Russell joined The Spokesman-Review in 1991. She currently is a reporter in the Boise Bureau covering Idaho state government and politics, and other news from Idaho's state capital.

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