SEATTLE — Thousands of customers are still without power after a storm dropped snow over Western Washington on Monday.
Dozens of schools are closed or delayed, and trees and power lines are down in some areas. As of early Tuesday, more than 26,000 Puget Sound Energy customers were without power. With temperatures dropping overnight, some areas will have icy and slick roads.
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A snowstorm that blanketed Seattle and western Washington state into Monday morning prompted widespread school closures, flight cancellations and power outages for more than 100,000 electrical utility customers.
The City of Seattle activated its Emergency Operations Center and Joint Information Center at 5 a.m. to support operations surrounding the Winter snow and cold weather event in Seattle.
What's next for weather:
- Cold and mainly dry
- Icy spots
- Mix to rain on Wednesday
We're off to a calm and cold start this morning. The calm part is about as different as can be compared to yesterday! Temps range from the mid-20s to the mid-30s. Seattle, like usual, is one of the warmest spots.
Coming in from the north end it was very icy for me until I got to I-5. The bottom line is, take it easy and leave some extra time to get to work or school.
Outside of a flurry or two north of Everett, I don't expect to see much, if any, shower activity today. Overall, it looks partly sunny with temps warming into the low-40s.
Tomorrow rain will pick up and pick up big time. When the rain begins late morning and into the early afternoon, there may be some pockets of snow and wet snow around the Hood Canal area and possibly parts of the sound.
Overall though, it'll mainly be rain. However, folks over the NW Interior will have a harder time getting rid of the coldest air, so snow and then freezing rain is all possible tomorrow before turning to rain.
1-2" of rain is possible through Thursday in the lowlands, 2-4" or maybe even 3-5" of rain could fall in the mountains. We'll keep you updated on possible river flooding.
Downed trees, power lines across Western Washington
Downed trees and power lines were strewn across several neighborhoods in Western Washington's widespread snow event.
Part of Woodland Park near Seattle's Green Lake is closed because a tree fell on a man. Hospital officials tell KIRO 7 the man was seriously hurt and in intensive care.
"This is the second tree apparently that came down this morning here in the dog park," said Seattle Fire Battalion Chief William Simpson. "So just in the abundance of caution, thought it would be prudent to shut down until the arborist can come out here and evaluate the rest of the trees in that park." Read more here.
In east Pierce County, video showed the dangers of downed power lines.Lines fell in the 14400 blk of S. Prairie Carbon River Road and caught on fire.
In Bellevue, Newport Way was closed between 150th and 130th due to numerous downed trees and power lines.
Back in Seattle, in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, a tree heavy with snow came down on top of a car on East Highland Drive, crushing the vehicle. See video footage of the damaged car and an interview with the owner.
Snowfall reports as high as 14 inches
Meteorologist Nick Allard said 14 inches of snow was reported in and around Puyallup.
It's the snowiest winter Seattle has seen in five years.
In Seattle's hilly Queen Anne neighborhood, children and parents took advantage of the neighborhood slopes to sled and use boogie boards to snowboard. Snow angels and snow creatures were also being made.
"It's awesome, especially because I had a life-skill test today and now it's delayed until Thursday," said Allette Franklin, 12.
Her 11-year-old friend Josie Kinney agreed. "It's almost a miniature Christmas," she said.
Nearby, Stephanie Krammel was making a snowman with her daughter.
"This doesn't happy very often in Seattle, and nobody knows what to do because the roads are normally a mess. A snow day in Seattle . is very rare and very fun, I would say," she said.
Delays and cancellations and Sea-Tac
At Seattle-Tacoma International Airport dozens of flights were cancelled at Seattle-Tacoma because of snow and ice on Monday.
Alaska Airlines spokeswoman Bobbie Egan said the carrier had trouble getting some employees to the airport and that passengers faced delays because workers had to deice jets.
"It's taking 30-45 minutes to deice a single plane, which is a significant issue to get planes out," Egan said. "It's a messy scene and we apologize for that, but it's a severe event."
Cox Media Group
