White stuff has drivers seeing red

A snowstorm gave drivers on Interstate 90 fits Monday morning and kicked off what forecasters expect to be a week of icy weather.

“It’s going to be getting much colder,” said Milt Maas of the National Weather Service at the Spokane airport. “We are going from early spring weather to late winter weather in the next week.”

Lows from Thursday night through the weekend could drop into the single digits, with windy conditions.

Between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m. Monday, slightly more than an inch of snow fell in the valleys in Eastern Washington and North Idaho.

About twice that fell in some areas of northeastern Washington, Maas said.

Washington State Patrol officers answered about 40 calls for slide-offs and accidents, said Trooper Jeff Sevigney, though none involved serious injuries.

“It was like the first day of winter all over again,” he said. “Everybody’s got to slow down and remember it’s still February.”

In North Idaho, the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Department responded to nine slide-offs during the morning commute, and Coeur d’Alene police had 17 accidents reported.

Post Falls Police Lt. Greg McLean said the morning commute in Post Falls was fairly quiet.

“I think people are still remembering how to drive in the snow from the last flurry,” he said.

Idaho State Police responded to a number of accidents, mostly slide-offs, with no major injuries reported.