Rain likely for morning drive

Forecasters are calling for an easier commute as warm air continues to invade the region and thaw out frozen roads.

The National Weather Service’s Seattle bureau revised forecasts for snow late Monday, saying rain showers are likely around Puget Sound with snow levels rising above 600 feet.

“Mainly it’s going to be a rain event (Monday night),” National Weather Service Meteorologist Carl Cerniglia said. “You’ll wake up to more wet than white."

Cerniglia said temperatures will likely reach 40 degrees this morning, yet more snow could be on its way later this week.

“We’re not completely out of the woods,” Cerniglia said. “With the pattern, borderline through the weekend, anytime could see rain and snow showers.”

If snow does return, the morning commute could be a carbon copy of Monday’s, when snow blanketed Snohomish County, creating some dangerous morning driving conditions.

Every school district in the county was closed Monday with the exception of Darrington, where snow has blanketed the ground since Christmas.

The interstates slowed to a crawl as cars spun out. Off-ramps were blocked and some drivers unwisely stopped in the middle lanes of I-405 to chain up, officials said.

"That's not the place you want to be doing it," said Washington State Patrol trooper Kirk Rudeen.

By midmorning Monday, many of the region's roads, including I-5, still were icy parking lots.

Granite Falls School District spokeswoman Kathy Grant battled a three-hour commute from her home on Camano Island on Monday.

Particularly treacherous were stretches on East Camano Drive and on Getchell Road from Highway 9 to Highway 92.

"I stopped counting all the cars in the ditch because there were so many," she said.

By early afternoon Monday, the sun had emerged and the ice and snow on the roads had mostly melted.

Still, the morning snow and unexpected snow day had many children scurrying to make snowmen.

The mixture of excitement and panic that accompanied Monday's snow befuddled Katia Kavaliova, a 14-year-old immigrant from Belarus. When she came with her family to the United States 11/2 years ago, she left behind knee-deep drifts of snow.

"There was a lot more snow there," she said.

Much more snow is forecast for the Cascade Range in the coming days. As much as 3 feet of snow is expected to fall on the Cascades by Tuesday evening and more is on the way, said Johnny Burg, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

Heavy snowfall in the mountains on top of an already unstable snowpack is heaping more danger on already deadly avalanche conditions, experts said.

Since December, nine people in Washington have lost their lives in avalanches, including three from Snohomish County, prompting experts to call this season the worse in modern history for avalanche deaths.

Slick roads were the big problem in Marysville on Monday.

John Landis spent his morning watching drivers slide into ditches as they tried to navigate the icy roads.

In the span of two hours, he saw almost a half-dozen vehicles slip off 84th Street in Marysville.

"Cars are unable to negotiate this left-hand turn," he said. "They're peeling out and sliding into the snowbank."

Six months ago, Landis moved to Monroe from California and just now is learning how to drive on ice and snow.

"It was scary," he said. "It got my adrenaline going a little bit. I had to learn how to touch the brakes and release."

Sleds were making better use of other roads in Marysville.

Kids barreled down 77th Street NE so fast parents had to stand at the bottom of the hill and catch them.

"There's like so much slippery stuff," said Megan Owens, 9. "You'll slide like heck. It's fun!"

Kids on the hill were hoping for at least one more day of snow.

"I like it," said Tanner Lamoureux, 7. "It's pretty good 'cause it's fun to sled on. You can slide with your feet."

In Snohomish, a few inches of snow decorated the riverfront.

It wasn't enough to get Jazmine Seather, 15, and Stephanie Arellano, 18, too excited.

"If it were more, we'd be playing," Jazmine said.

Nonetheless, the two Snohomish High School students were happy that they didn't need to go to school Monday and hoped more snow would stave off upcoming exams.

"We kind of want to do finals, but not really," Jazmine said.

The final decision about school is expected to be made early this morning.

School transportation employees across Snohomish County typically drive around their districts to assess driving conditions long before students get up.

"They are out there even before 3 a.m.," said Debbie Jakala, a spokeswoman for the Edmonds School District.

The goal in Edmonds is to decide by 5 a.m. to get the news to families who must plan their days, she said.

It can be a tricky proposition because conditions can be vastly different from one part of the district to another, she said.

Burg, the weather service forecaster, said he wouldn't bet on another snow day today.

"It's probably a good idea to get your homework done," he said. "And, hey, if there's no school, there's no homework to worry about."

Herald writers Eric Stevick, Yoshiaki Nohara, Kaitlin Manry, Lukas Velush and Krista J. Kapralos contributed to this report.

Reporter Jackson Holtz: 425-339-3437 or jholtz@heraldnet.com.