It isn't just the snow, but when it compresses in freezing temps it turns into ice. Ice + hills = a mess.

will have their videos on YouTube by now..tomorrow at latest.

Anytime it snowed in Puget Sound, I parked the car until the rains returned.
We learned to drive in snow, used to go over the passes all the time, but so many others on the road do not know
how to do it.

btw...one inch of snow here down South, ALL cars spin out!!!!!

I know it can be mountainous, but doesn't Washington get snow?

I used to see them when I was a kid. It's very populated here and no mountains, so there is a difference.

I live in Seattle, and it's quite treacherous with just an inch or 2 of snow because of the steep hills EVERYWHERE. I didn't put chains on my car (because I don't have them ) but it was quite a hair-raising adventure driving home from work this AM, at 730, at the height of the snowstorm, before most of the non-arterial roads were plowed....

I can't imagine what it's like going downhill with no brakes.

I work overnights (I'm a nurse), so got home at 8am, slept til 5, went out and got a coffee and some wood for the fireplace but that's pretty flat...I live in West Seattle on the top of a hill...haven't left the hill Glad I don't work tonight. Fuck that shit, driving up James/Madison street...no, I don't think so

It is a wet snow that goes icy really quickly. I grew up in mid-west and drove all over but this is different here. Eastern WA snow is different also.

Ice + hills = sucks.

plus, we don't have a lot of snow equipment...

and what will be worse - is if the temp rises, the snow melts - then we will have sheets of ice with the night time freeze.

We do get snow, but not as much in the lowlands... so it is 'infrequent'...that we get a lot of snow.

Right around Thanksgiving. I also went to Mt. St. Helens. I'll never forget that drive up Mt. Rainier. Once I got to 3,000 feet, the rain turned to snow. There was a raging snow storm with snow over my head when I got to the farthest point permitted. I think that was around 5,400'. It was a great experience.

In other words, a compliment at driving prowess

In comparison, here in Houston, the only 'hills' we have are the freeway overpasses. Yet, last year's February ice storm led to 750 accidents in 13 hours. Of course, the local news media is quite good at not educating the populace about such things as why only the bridges would be frozen and not any roads in contact with the earth.

I suspect our high number could have been lower had the news media bothered to educate instead of sensationalize. By the looks of things, I'd say that your drivers are likely much better than they are here

Our's stay off the roads unless they have to go out. Plus, a significant number of the population drives SUVs.

Down in the cities, there is normally no snow. Thus the lack of equipment to remove it when it happens.

I was in Dallas one December and we got a couple of inches of snow. People acted like it was the end of the world and drivers just didn't know how to adjust. On flat ground like that you should be able to drive OK on a sheet of ice.

... while other places get it, the northwest gets it in a way that turns roads into pure ice rinks.

Living for 5+ years in the Dry-Shitties. I saw low snowfalls but lots of black ice and hoarfrost. Travelling back-and-forth between the Dry-Shitties and either Seattle (over Snoqualamie) or Portland (via the Gorge) taught me plenty about weather thereabouts ... and winter is miserable. I did the Gorge once when the ice ruts were 6-10" deep (thought I'd lose a wheel) and the ice storm covered everyting in a 2" layer of ice. (Yeow!) I've done the Snoqualomie when it got hubcap-deep pretty damned quick, while the east side was just blowing flurries.

driving during a heavy snow year on I-18 near auburn, washington, 1978. smashed into a guard rail on an icy curve, but was able to continue. I had to drive back to tacoma with no headlights, though. really freaked me out watching cars coming up the road, getting ready to crash. we hightailed it out of there before we were hit too. i was sufficiently frightened away from driving on snow or ice anywhere after that! i've never even visited lake tahoe in the winter as the ice deters me.

That's why the snow throws the area for a loop. It's also why it's a great place to live. You head to the mountains to ski on the weekends, and you hardly ever shovel the stuff.

Not to the point people have to deal with it unless they are going over the pass.

I constantly see complete morons with the chains on non-drive wheels, etc. If you have a front wheel drive mini-van, you gain nothing by putting chains on your rear wheels, etc.

I live near the pass, and have seen people chain up to drive 10 miles on wet pavement. People doing 50 with chains on, where links have broken and it's literally shredding the car...

A sizeable percentage of our local population is helpless in the face of an inch or more of snow.

The best 'zamboni' style videos you'll see on the news, those people are running summer compound tires. They might as well be driving on marbles.

and what type of snow it is.

I live in mountainous area - come October - chains are kept in the car always - until end of April. Wet snow which quickly turns to ice is really bad with no traction - much better to be safe than sorry.

Sometimes the ploughs come through with good intentions, but scrape off the top snow leaving below a mush that will turn to ice.

I work at a community hospital that usually serves as a shelter when the shelters are full (hey, say you have chest pain and you can get a bed for the night!), and amazingly we weren't overrun last night or this morning after the snow because of the emergency shelters.

The city also has a van that drives around to help vunerable persons get to shelters, or the sobering house, and not just during snow but 24 hours a day

check out some of these links. we have a wet-house, where those with chronic alcohol addiction can have a safe place to stay and still drink, therefore decreasing their liklihood of going through fatal withdrawals and seizures, and by living there they actually use fewer public services than if the DESC wet house wasn't there.

http://www.desc.org/
http://www.desc.org/housing.html
http://www.desc.org/1811.html

The 1811 Eastlake house has gotten national and international accolades for it's pioneering spirit and ingenuity towards those that most people see as drains on society. Many cities have modeled their own wet-houses after the success of 1811

Very progressive city from what I hear.

If you hear someone yelling "hey, hey, hey" behind you, and you turn to see who is yelling, you may get shot unless you have a happy smile on your face.

http://mynorthwest.com/category/local_news_articles/20101217/Police-release-video-of-carver-shooting/

Guess I get to try tomorrow!

We keep alternating between freezing rain and snow here and it looks like its accumulating again.

They're native Pennsylvanians, though. They can handle it.

this is that wet stuff that compacts to ice - and they apparently don't have salt trucks out in Washington. I've been caught in that stuff very early and very late in the season, and it's white knuckle time until the plows come through!

New this year. Of course, now everyone will be screaming in 5-10 years when their cars start to rust out. That's new for us.

(I should be specific, the STATE has had salt trucks for some time, but King Co./Seattle just got them. We nixed the idea years back to protect the Chinook salmon.)

the local governments here would look at the lifetime costs. I'd gladly pay an extra $50 a year in property taxes if it kept the salt off my car and off my soil! You should see all the evergreens dying from exposure to salt spray!

In winters, snow is less regular in a coastal place like Seattle unlike in the Rockies, Great Lakes, Plains, or New England regions. Maybe I'm too shocked as someone living in the snowless Bay Area of California.

Most people are staying in...so traffic is very light....

Folks in the other areas you mention have developed a wide range of driving skills (well, most of us have) to accommodate snowfall. We also "winterize" our cars in general. This may include special tires, chains, heavy-duty windshield wipers, special windshield cleaners rated for low temperatures, etc. All those things add up to increased safety on the roadways in places where heavy snows are more common. Just a thought.

I'd bet that accidents probably happen at about this same rate (proportional to our population) for the first storm and then drop off after that. There also often seems to be a learning curve with public works remembering how many trucks they need to have out to clear up a storm that drops X inches of snow.

is generally wet, heavy snow that compacts to ice. You can't drive on ice, I can't drive on ice, no one can drive on ice!

what snowy winters are about, probably more so than Spokane, and so don't deserve to on the receiving end of your schadenfreude.

The convergence zone in the Puget Sound basin can shift pretty dramatically. I'm not surprised that Pierce and Thurston took the hit.

Living 80 miles north of Seattle (greater metropolitan Sedro Woolley (formerly known as Bug)) I have two feet of snow and a high temperature today of 22.

Tomorrow the rains will slowly move in and we'll have new threats with urban flooding and rain soaked snow laden trees that will lose limbs or worse.

Ah! The joys of a maritime weather region...

We have about 6 inches of snow. Today I bundled up, took a broom and went out to knock the snow off my beautiful pink dogwood tree. The branches were bent nearly to the breaking point and I was afraid of damage to the tree. I think it will be ok now. I'm retired so I don't have to be anywhere, but the rest of the family was stuck at home due to the snow. One of them regularly works at home on Wednesdays, another was sent home yesterday with permission to stay at home, and the other one had school closure.

One of the posts above mentioned the next danger in this area: melting snow overwhelming the storm drainage system and causing flooding. I'm at the top of a hill so the house is in no danger from that, but all the roads around the hill could (and on occasion did) flood also stranding everyone at home.

Stay safe out there, Seattle!

I've been through two "snow storms" in Seattle area. The first was in November of 2010 and the current one. I understand there's not much snow here, that people may not be as prepared to drive in it, and that Seattle is hilly. However, from my past experiences in other states that deal with snow, Seattle seems woefully unprepared. They predict the storm for days, and the local news would ignore WWIII for storm reporting. After the fact, they preempt regular programming to show endless shots of slick streets, sledding citizens, and sliding cars. I've been in areas, yes, hilly areas, that get a foot of snow, the streets are treated and plowed and life goes on. I've never encountered news coverage of this magnitude for a snow storm, before and after.

how exactly was all that coverage helpful, at least one channel for 14 hours straight. just ridiculous.

of the 1990 blizzard (which struck without warning in the middle of a workday,) and the 1997 storm (which made the national news). The former mayor of Seattle lost his job after the city's inaction during the 2008 snowstorm.

There are people who just can't be bothered with the tiny details (Microsoft's employees, for instance,) when local government and police officers tell anyone who isn't a doctor, nurse, firefighter, police officer, or other emergency employee to STAY OFF THE ROADS. Those who do things like take an hour out of their critically important duties earlier this week to get some extra canned food or firewood at the store save a lot of headaches for those who are inevitably pulling their asses (and their newly-wrecked cars,) out of the ditch when they're doing 55 on I-5 in a sheet of ice.

Despite the wall-to-wall coverage, every goddamn time, we see some idiot on local news insisting they had "no idea" it would "be this bad".

had no idea about the convention center situation in New Orleans.

Let's see here: If the city sinks huge money into a fleet of snow plows, it's money that doesn't go for something else that's critical, like oh, road repair. The city was not using salt brine till last year because of the effect on the Chinook salmon habitat as well.

Nickels made mistakes, but he didn't deserve to pay for it with his job. God knows the earth would explode if a bunch of Microsoft employees actually had to a) take a day off, and b) go without their quad split-shot non-fat caramel Macchiato with sprinkles.

I'm a native. Sometimes, the storm isn't evident till it's on top of all of us. When the weather people sound the warning, people bitch because they're "sick of the coverage". It's a win-win.

Add cold and partial thaw and cold again and and we have ice.
Especially with the freezing rain that drizzled down for awhile.

Looks like many of the streets and hills might be skating rinks on Thursday, especially in the morning.

Serious snowstorms WA is not prepared for.

"Stupid drivers driving outside the envelope for current road conditions cause 95 accidents in 8 hours"

There, fixed it.

I'm in Arizona, missing all the fun back home (hate me, if you must), but I've been living in Seattle since the late 80's, and I thought we got a snowstorm every 5 years. We had a big one in '91 (I think), where I had to abandon the car and walk home for 12 miles because no cars were getting through. That was a lot of fun, actually. I met up with strangers also walking home and there was a lot of camaraderie and laughing at the people in their cars stuck in a long, non-moving line. Walking was quite literally faster!

We had another big in '96 (Again, I think). but now this makes for 2 in 2 years. I wasn't able to get the car back up in the driveway last time and we were caught out without a shovel. I now own a shovel, but, dammit, I'm here suffering 70 degree temperatures {sigh}

Just sayin'.

"festooned with wrecks!"

It's a royal pain in the butt. I'v been home for two days, and am turining into a big old sleepy lump.

I remember being up in Bellingham during an intense round of snow and freezing rain years ago.
Beautiful, with the trees all coated in ice and everything sparkling like diamonds, but very dangerous.

Stay safe and warm.

elsewhere.

That's on the page for downtown Seattle.



Earlier, they had 40% chance rain with rainy icon up.

Thanks for posting the links.

Looks like this being quite a bit more stubborn to transition than was earlier thought.

The current forecast has temps rising during the night so we'll see how that goes or if it shifts:
Tonight: Snow likely before 10pm, then rain and snow likely. Snow level 400 feet rising to 2200 feet. Cloudy, with a temperature rising to around 39 by 4am. North northeast wind around 6 mph becoming calm. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible.

How are you doing?

Unfortunately the only place pup can go outside is under the car since snow is too deep, so been going through numerous newspapers on floor instead. I'm not attempting to go anywhere so it is good. Had to shake a couple trees/bushes to get the heavy snow off as they were bending over, otherwise it is beautiful out, 7-8 inches of snow and below freezing. I'm not looking forward to icy rain and wind though as that will make a mess.

A bit cabin fevery but we're set for a couple weeks before would have to leave the place.

Birds on the porch are driving the cats nuts. They are in/out mice catchers and the birds are right...THERE!!! Got a bunch of towhees and winter wrens which is fun.

Any pictures?

Talking about birds on the porch. Years ago, when I lived in California for awhile, a pair of mockingbirds built a nest on the patio so I didn't let my cat out during that time. That was her first time being housebound (later she had to change to entirely inside but that's another story). Since it was warm there, had the sliding glass doors open with a screen door blocking her from going out. Oh, how those mockingbirds teased her. Very protective, got divebombed myself a couple times until they figured out I wasn't going near the nest.

I am enjoying the days off, but likewise don't like the idea of dealing with icy rain and am wondering what tomorrow will bring if there's transition to in-between muck and ice but have to go in.

What fun to have a puppy and see her during her first snow storm.

Found this blog the other day and been reading it for the weather, but also noticed the guy's dog is missing in Mountlake Terrace. Hope it's doing ok and found a warm spot somewhere.

http://cliffmass.blogspot.com/

We won't be venturing out again until the ice and snow are melted. The city we live in is built into the side of a hill on the way to the Cascade Mountains. Let's just say the entire city is a sheet of ice right now, and it's still snowing.

The Washington State Patrol was broadcasting Tuesday morning on ALL media in Washington State that the people of Western Washington needed 4-7 days of food, water and necessary medications on hand. The only reason why there were only 95 accidents yesterday in that 8 hour time span is because MOST people stayed home.

Stay safe and warm, everyone!

Alaska Airlines and other airlines canceled more flights in and out of Seattle Thursday as they dealt with an ice storm that temporarily shut down Sea-Tac Airport and continued to snarl air traffic.

Two of the airport's three runways opened before noon, and flights were starting to take off and arrive, said Sea-Tac spokesman Perry Cooper.

"It was raining ice," Cooper said. "If it were just snow, we would have been happy. Ice is just much more complex. It's just something we don't normally see."....

A few years ago, one of my sons was without power for a week or more, so he's understandably nervous about it, but last I heard theirs was still on. Lots of large branches crashing down, though.

When I lived in Seattle in the 90's, we had a big wet snow storm. Roofs were collapsing under it. House boats on the lake came close to capsizing. The other Safeway on Capital Hill had its roof collapse under the weight of snow.

when i lived there, they did, but it's been over 30 years.

They do work on snow and ice, but here in western WA that doesn't happen very often, maybe a wk or 2 a yr. The rest of the winter is rain.