Snow hits Snohomish County; school closures announced
Published 7:54 am Wednesday, February 23, 2011
The winter storm predicted by forecasters swept through Snohomish County this morning, resulting in numerous school closures, including the Snohomish, Marysville and Lake Stevens school districts.
The National Weather Service in Seattle had predicte
d an Arctic air mass dropping south from British Columbia combined with low pressure off the Washington coast would bring the potential for heavy snow over many parts of the lowlands of Western Washington through Thursday morning.
That could mean 2 to 6 inches in Snohomish County.
As expected, a wet and slushy snowfall came Wednesday morning.
The weather service expects that temperatures will fall into the 20s later in the day. “Therefore,” the weather service warns, “a flash freeze will likely affect the afternoon or evening commute over much of Western Washington.”
Whatever snow falls is likely to stick around into the weekend because of freezing temperatures, meteorologist Carl Cerniglia said. Temperatures are expected to dip into the teens overnight.
On Tuesday, the snow and hail caused several spinout accidents. School started two hours late in Arlington, Darrington, Granite Falls and Lakewood school districts.
The Washington State Patrol reported 21 collisions on highways in the county from early in the morning until noon Tuesday.
Some areas were hit harder than others.
“There is really no rhyme or reason to this convergence zone,” trooper Keith Leary said.
Cars were getting stuck because of compact snow and ice around the 88th Street overpass between Marysville and Tulalip, Leary said.
Leary said it was mainly because of hail storms coming through one after another. There also was thunder and lightning at times.
Trees were blocking traffic over U.S. 2 near Gold Bar and east of Index on Tuesday morning.
February snow is not unusual for Western Washington, Cerniglia said.
“We are definitely not out of the woods yet,” he said.
Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446; stevick@heraldnet.com.
