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January 18, 2012 in Region
Widespread snowstorm wallops Seattle area
Snow blankets cars and homes in Tacoma, Wash., today. A widespread snowstorm walloped western Washington today with the heaviest blow missing Seattle and hitting the Olympia area, causing accidents, closing schools and canceling flights at Sea-Tac Airport.
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SEATTLE — A widespread snowstorm walloped western Washington today, with the heaviest blow missing Seattle and hitting the Olympia area, causing accidents, closing schools and canceling flights at Sea-Tac Airport.
There were 95 accidents in an eight-hour period in Pierce and Thurston counties, which include Tacoma and Olympia, State Trooper Guy Gill said Wednesday morning. Most were spinouts.
“You need to pick a rut and stay in it. If you get off the beaten path, you’re in deep trouble,” Gill said. “I saw a guy in my rear mirror — I saw headlights and tail lights and headlights and tail lights again as he spun around off the road.”
“For the first time in my career I had to put chains on,” Gill said. “You stay in the path laid down on the freeway. You get off that, you are in trouble.”
Olympia had about a foot of new snow on the ground by 7:30 a.m. The city could break its record of 14 inches of snow in a 24-hour period, said Brad Colman, meteorologist in charge of the National Weather Service office in Seattle. Areas south of Olympia could get 20 inches.
“They’re getting hammered,” Colman said.
Tacoma had about 7 inches of snow for the morning rush hour. Seattle had compact snow and ice on roads for commuters. Lesser amounts were reported north of Seattle.
Southeast Washington also is getting a good shot of snow with 6 to 10 inches expected in the Palouse, said meteorologist Colby Neuman at the Weather Service office, where only 2 to 4 inches were expected.
“This will be right up with the most snow this season,” Neuman said. “This has been an un-snowy winter.”
Heavy snow has been falling in Washington’s mountains with up to 2 feet of fresh snow expected by Thursday. Interstate 90 across Snoqualmie Pass was shut down for much of Tuesday for avalanche control work. The pass was open to traffic both ways this morning, though traction tires are required in both directions and travel time is expected to be a little longer than usual.
The state department of transportation reports compact snow and ice on the roadway going over the pass, and says it’s currently snowing.
Washington residents had plenty of warning as snow showers started over the weekend. With the big blow in sight, Seattle and other school districts canceled classes in advance.
Alaska Airlines announced late Tuesday that it canceled 38 flights into and out of Seattle and Portland, Ore. Several downtown Seattle hotels reported all their rooms were booked. Elsewhere, shoppers stocked up on groceries.
The state Emergency Management Division activated its operations center at Camp Murray on Wednesday to help deal with the snowstorm, but cities and counties were handling the situation on their own, said spokesman Mark Clemens. Nonetheless, representatives of the emergency division, National Guard, Transportation Department, Washington State Patrol and other agencies were ready to coordinate their work.
Seattle also activated its Emergency Operations Center. The city’s Transportation Department has 33 vehicles out, focusing on keeping arterials and bus routes open. In advance Tuesday, they spread 4,000 gallons of brine and 113 tons of salt, said spokesman David Takami.
Many courts and government offices and libraries closed. Garbage collection was postponed. Sen. Patty Murray canceled her event at a Tacoma company where she planned to talk about employing veterans.
Forecasters expected the weather to transition back to normal Thursday and “good old rain back Friday and Saturday,” meteorologist Colman said.
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westerly on January 18 at 8:35 a.m.
Everett has one foot on ground right now.
BlondeSquawker on January 18 at 9:06 a.m.
We’re getting dumped on in Moscow right now. It’s beautiful!
alisonb on January 18 at 9:31 a.m.
Hi BlondeSquawker:
We’d love to see your snow photo from Moscow. You can email it to us at breakingnews@spokesman.com or upload it to our photo gallery at: http://www.spokesman.com/reader-photos/winter-storm-2012/.
Thanks!
Alison Boggs
Online producer
Upthewazzu on January 18 at 9:44 a.m.
I can attest to what BlondeSquawker said. The Palouse is getting hit HARD. The drive from Pullman to Moscow this morning was not fun. The semi-truck that jacknifed and blocked Paradise St didn’t make things any easier. I wish I could post some pics, but unfortunately my old flip-phone camera doesn’t quite pass the eye-test.
DCLacey on January 18 at 9:49 a.m.
Been in Olympia now 7 years never seen this much snow at one time. Reminds me of home in E Wa. Supposed to get rain on top of 12-14 inches that is not going to be good for the roofs.
alisonb on January 18 at 9:53 a.m.
Upthewazzu: Go ahead and give it a try if you want. If it comes through well, we’ll include it. Sounds like fun down there on the Palouse… Safe travels.
reservedparking on January 18 at 9:57 a.m.
Hope the Legislature got to work this morning - maybe they’ll get snowed in TO the Capitol buildings and actually get some work done!
Truthbtold on January 18 at 11:13 a.m.
We were at the Olympic peninsula, (on the Ocean) and woke up Monday to morning to head back home; with NO services to outside world; snowed in; passes closed; and the snow kept coming……….
It wasn’t until yesterday morning that we… could drive out and attempt to get to the ferry to Seattle….We LITERALLY drove over downed trees in the road to get out!!!!!!!
Roads were terrible. It’s a big storm and headed this way…….
11.5 hour trip back to Spokane….. UGH
drywitt99 on January 18 at 11:25 a.m.
Seattle’s “Storm of the Millennium”!!!! :)
I live just north of the U-District…..maybe 3 inches on the ground…..simply BEAUTIFUL!!!
A snow day for just about everyone!!
Shadedmuse on January 18 at 11:54 a.m.
What snow storm? you call a dusting a Snow storm come on get real you guys are a joke.
DCLacey on January 18 at 1:44 p.m.
Shademuse: I lived in West Plains for 46 years and know full well what it is like to plow the driveway just to get to the country road to go to work. What we have in Olympia & south today is 14-20 inches overnight. I agree that in most cases the westsiders have no clue about real snow & cold. Today however from Olympia south we got more than a dusting even by E. Wa. standards.
Leo_Z on January 18 at 3:52 p.m.
DCLacey: Please don’t feed the troll.
RedCedar on January 18 at 5:30 p.m.
I watched KOMO news on the Internet today for a while just for fun. They had reporters out all over. One reported on an SUV that was spinning its wheels on a street in Tacoma until some people pushed it out. Another went down to Centralia and reported that they were following a sand truck “out of an abundance of caution”. The road they were on was bare and wet, but snow was visible on the shoulders. They interviewed a couple of young ladies on Capitol Hill who were taking the day off to enjoy the snow, which did appear to have started sticking to the street. Another reporter stuck his fingers in the snow and reported breathlessly that it was really starting to accumulate and was all the way up to his hand (which presumably meant the part that the fingers attach to). Yet another reported that there had been 700 accidents statewide as a result of this storm. I checked the Seattle area traffic cameras and saw no traffic jams, and freeways wet or slushy.
At the risk of sounding like an old-timer 4” of snow at SeaTac and 2” in Seattle, is not a storm, and it’s certainly not the biggest snowstorm since the 1940s, as it was being promoted. I grew up near SeaTac and I remember many winters where we got a foot of snow, and one when we got 2 feet and Boeing was closed for 2 days. The old-timers remembered a snow storm that dropped 3 feet of snow on downtown Seattle in the days before snow plows and sand trucks.
By the way, Wallace got 2 feet of snow in one day yesterday and life went on just like normal. All the stores were open, nobody was buying survival supplies, the delivery trucks were making their rounds, cars were not sliding off the roads, and even the school buses were doing their normal routes without chains.