EVERETT — It came.
Then it went.
And for those in Western Washington, days of anticipation drip, drip, dripped away as the snow that fell Saturday afternoon melted into gray puddles.
That’s how weather experts predicted the season’s first real snowfall would end. By the time Sunday newspapers hit front stoops and automatic coffeepots click on, they said, the snow would be gone.
“It’s not going to last very long,” National Weather Service meteorologist Doug McDonnal said Saturday, even as snowflakes that rivaled scoops of gelato in size swirled to the ground.
Though the southern Puget Sound region was hardest hit, Snohomish County communities received between 1 and 3 inches of snow, McDonnal said. The air was expected to warm up and melt the snow by early this morning.
State transportation crews worked overtime Saturday to keep streets clear, but highways and roads were snarled with minor accidents throughout the county.
Cars slid down the gentle slopes that surround the Alderwood mall in Lynnwood, where snow plows weren’t able to keep up with the storm. Vehicles slipped into guardrails and blocked roads east of Everett, and police scrambled to fit the tires on their patrol cars with chains.
The National Weather Service issued a snow advisory for most of Western Washington, and a winter storm warning for the Cascade Mountains. Stevens Pass reported blizzard conditions at its ski resort.
Today will be warmer, McDonnal said, with highs in the 50s. The snow, followed by a dramatic temperature hike and rain throughout the region, could mean flooding.
“We could see some of the rivers that flow off the west slopes of the Cascades driven to flood stage by Monday night or Tuesday,” McDonnal said. “The most typically flood-prone areas are at risk, but at this point, all the rivers that flow off the Cascade’s west slopes face some threat of flooding.”
On Saturday, the snowy bluster had Snohomish County residents flustered.
Wet flakes of snow, as though dropped into the atmosphere from a heavenly spoon, fell onto Karla Stringer, 56, as she labored to straighten a length of colorful holiday lights on the front porch of her Hoyt Avenue home in Everett. Her daughter, 31-year-old Linda Helslen, wrapped the lights around the wrought-iron porch railing.
“My daughter came over today and said, ‘Let’s put up the lights,’ and I couldn’t resist the help,” Stringer said. “It takes a while to pull all this stuff out, and then we had to run to the store to buy a plug, and that’s when it started snowing.”
Stringer, a teacher’s aide for the Everett School District, hopes the weekend weather isn’t a harbinger of things to come. Last year, too many snow days during the winter meant the school year extended well into what would have otherwise been summer vacation, she said.
“If it’s going to snow, this is the best day for it,” she said. “I hope it comes now, but then goes away before Monday.”
In Marysville, the snow brought a festive cheer to the city’s annual Winter Festival and Electric Lights Parade. Despite the cold, the parade had 35 entrants — a record number, Marysville spokesman Doug Buell said.
What was a headache elsewhere in the county added to Marysville’s celebration, Buell said at the height of the evening’s festivities.
“The snow is sticking to the main road,” he said.
Reporter Krista J. Kapralos: 425-339-3422 or kkapralos@heraldnet.com.
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