What a slick surprise

From Everett south to other parts of Western Washington, weather forecasters didn’t see Wednesday’s snow coming

By Jim Haley

Herald Writer

It was a nice, white surprise if you got out of school early because of it.

For the drivers on local roads Wednesday morning, the unexpected snowfall wasn’t so nice.

Rush hour stretched to almost noon on I-5 and Highway 99 after 2 to 4 inches of snow blanketed the area from south Everett to the King County line and from Bothell to Edmonds.

"What a mess," said Steve Pratt, road maintenance supervisor for Snohomish County Public Works.

Today’s weather

Forecasters blew the call on snow Wednesday, but they insist that no more snow is anticipated in the lower elevations today. But some rain and wind is expected to continue from overnight Wednesday into today. Heavy snow showers are expected in the mountains.

Wednesday’s weather

  • 4 inches of snow reported in Shelton.

  • 3 inches around Olympia.

  • 2 inches in Ferndale.

  • 6 inches in Bremerton.

  • 4 inches reported in Yakima.

  • Also snowing in Wenatchee, Moses Lake and Pasco.

  • Snow, icy rain and thunderstorms in the southern Plains states and the Midwest.

  • Freezing rain – up to 2 1/2 inches in some areas – and snow from central Texas into Arkansas.

  • 10 inches of snow reported in Munday, Texas.

    Ski report

  • Stevens Pass is set to open this morning with limited operations. The Brooks, SkyLine, Hogsback, Daisy and Tye Mill chairlifts will be running. Stevens reported about 40 inches of snow at the base Wednesday afternoon, with more coming down. If it keeps up, Stevens should go to full operations, including night skiing, in another week. Lift tickets are $32 until all lifts are running. The regular price is $43.

  • The Mount Baker Ski Area is open daily with limited operations.

  • Crystal Mountain near Enumclaw is also open daily with limited operations, although it plans to be fully open by Saturday.

  • The Summit at Snoqualmie opens Friday, with just Summit West operating.

  • It was a surprise because the forecasters didn’t see it coming. Why not?

    Missing the temperature of an incoming cold front by just a few degrees made the difference, said G.B. Packer, meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

    "We thought about snow Monday night, but then we thought, ‘No, it would be a little bit too warm,’ " Packer said.

    One of the meteorologists at the Weather Service pressed for putting the possibility of snow into the local forecast for Wednesday. Nobody else did.

    So who was the person who wanted to predict a snow possibility?

    "We don’t identify them when they’re wrong, so we don’t identify them when they’re right," Packer said.

    Dean Gilbert, forecaster from independent NorthWest Weathernet, said the snow in the Everett-Lynnwood area was an anomaly.

    "We cooled off a little more than we anticipated last night," he said Wednesday afternoon.

    With the temperature hovering at or near the freezing mark, a hard rain "tends to drag snow levels to the surface," Gilbert said.

    Nearly a half of an inch of rain fell in Everett during the day Wednesday, according to city officials.

    No snow was anticipated in the lower elevations today, according to Wednesday afternoon’s forecast. But we should get some rain and wind overnight and today. Heavy snow showers are expected in the mountains.

    The snow that fell at Stevens Pass Wednesday was welcome. It was enough to assure that the ski resort would open today, said Lori Vandenbrink.

    "It’s a pretty awesome snowstorm we’ve got going up here," she said.

    While that’s a skier’s delight, the snow in Lynnwood and Everett was anything but that. Roads were clogged with skidding cars, and snow-laden tree branches fell across power lines, causing outages. About 12,000 Snohomish County PUD customers were without power at the height of the storm Wednesday morning, spokesman Neil Neroutsos said. All but a few isolated locations had power restored by late afternoon, he added.

    Early in the day, southwest Snohomish County had scattered outages from the snow. A little later in the morning, winds up to 40 mph caused additional problems primarily in the Sultan, Monroe and Snohomish areas, Neroutsos said.

    Snohomish County’s Pratt said his road crews depend on forecasts to position sanding and plowing crews. Neither the Weather Service nor the private forecasting group to which the county subscribes predicted snow.

    "They did call at 6 (a.m. Wednesday) to give us a warning, but it takes a while to scramble the equipment," Pratt said.

    He started getting reports of falling snow at 6:20 a.m.

    "We just had total chaos this morning," said Snohomish County sheriff’s spokeswoman Jan Jorgensen. "We had multiple accidents, we had power lines down, and it kept patrol (personnel) very, very busy. There were no serious injuries."

    Washington State Patrol Trooper Sam Eagle said the Highway 526 overpass and entrance to I-5 was closed for about a half-hour due to treacherous ice and a jackknifed semitrailer truck.

    There was bad weather around Snohomish County, but we weren’t alone. As much as 4 inches of snow was reported at Shelton, 3 inches around Olympia, 2 inches in Ferndale and 6 inches at Bremerton. In Eastern Washington, Yakima had 4 inches. It was snowing in Wenatchee, Moses Lake and Pasco on Wednesday morning, but it was raining in Walla Walla.

    Meanwhile, a storm front stretching from Texas into the Northeast brought snow, icy rain and thunderstorms to the southern Plains and the Midwest on Wednesday.

    Freezing rain and snow coated roads from central Texas into Arkansas. More than 2 1/2inches of rain fell in some parts of Texas.

    Behind the front, nearly 10 inches of snow was reported at Munday, Texas, with smaller amounts in Oklahoma City and Wichita Falls, Texas, and parts of southern Missouri.

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

    You can call Herald Writer Jim Haley at 425-339-3447 or send e-mail to haley@heraldnet.com.

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