Wintry wonderland warms into rain and fog this week

Morning rain is expected to wash away most of Spokane’s snow as temperatures climb and fog descends in some areas today.

Meteorologists with the National Weather Service expect temperatures to warm back up this week, with daytime highs in the low 40s.

The forecast follows a slushy Monday that challenged drivers and teased children outside during the observed Veterans Day holiday that closed schools.

A couple of single-vehicle collisions in west Spokane clogged traffic on Monday morning while other drivers crashed their cars into poles and fences along slippery roads.

Snow accumulation during the morning commute totaled about 2-3 inches in some areas. Most of the city’s street crews were dedicated to the South Hill and North Side, where snow was the heaviest.

The holiday kept many regular commuters off the roads.

“If it was a full-on work day, it would have been worse,” said Spokane police Officer Teresa Fuller. Manito Park was a magnet for children of all ages flocking to the sledding slopes.

By afternoon the sledders had cleaned the hillsides of snow, leaving nothing but grassy paths.

Nic Baird, 25, said his family has been coming to the park from north Spokane since he was a kid.

“It’s weird because it used to be us as the kids, but now we’re the aunts and uncles taking the kids,” Baird said.

Even adults joined in on the fun, designing a snow fortress.

“Oh, if you build it they will come come,” Jeremy Cope, 35, said as his kids played inside the towering structure.

“I can’t even see them in there – the walls are too tall.”

Dads packed in snow to perfect the community project, even carving a tunnel for the little ones to crawl in and out. “It’s attracting more and more children. It’s like bait,” Cope added.

The fortress might last a while even with warmer temperatures to come, but the general layer of snow in other areas should be gone by the end of this week.