Western Washington hit with light snow overnight, leading to icy roads, flight delays

SEATTLE — Parts of Western Washington had some light snow overnight.

South King County, the South Sound and the Cascade foothills were among the areas that saw some significant snowfall. Though Seattle-Tacoma International Airport only received about a half-inch of snow, overnight travelers flying with Alaska Airlines were stuck on the tarmac for hours as their plane was de-iced, only to end up with their flight being canceled.

Alaska Air has been responding to customers online, saying, “the weather was the root of the issue. Had there not been snow to delay us, there would have been no disruptions.”

Early Tuesday, FlightAware showed there were still a few dozen delays and 16 cancellations across all airlines at Sea-Tac.

The snow also caused some schools to be delayed Tuesday in such areas as Arlington, Bellevue, Kent, Enumclaw and Federal Way. The Puyallup School District also canceled classes. See the full list at this link.

There were also been numerous crashes on area highways amid icy conditions Tuesday morning.

Heading over the mountains, a 70-mile stretch of eastbound Interstate 90 was closed between North Bend and Ellensburg at 5:30 p.m. Monday. Shortly before 8 p.m., the westbound lanes were shut down as well due to heavy snowfall and crashes. The highway reopened at 12:30 a.m. on Tuesday.

One of the crashes involved a car that hit a snow plow, which is now out of service, but no one was hurt.

According to WSDOT spokesperson Sean Quinn, within a span of eight hours, there were four major accidents on Highway 18. All the collisions occurred after a semi-tractor trailer spun out.

“I think what catches people off guard is a lot of freight uses 18 because they use it to get to I-90,” said Quinn. “A lot of folks seem to forget Tiger Mountain itself is kind of like a pass.”

Forecast

For Tuesday evening, expect sunshine with some clouds and chilly temperatures after the hail and snow of Monday night. A similar forecast is on tap for Wednesday.

Tuesday night will be cold and frosty and residual moisture on roadways could refreeze, so use caution into Wednesday morning. Morning lows will be in the 20s, with some clouds and some sun early. Overall, expect more clouds around Wednesday, but it’ll stay cool and dry. Highs will be in the 40s.

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Wednesday night through Thursday and Friday, there will be a slight chance for rain or a rain/snow mix with the best chances being at the coast. Most locations will get no precipitation at all. It remains cool with highs in the 40s.

Rain chances increase over the weekend, with slightly milder highs around 50 degrees. Sunday’s rain chance will be greater than Saturday’s.

The outlook for next week is murky, but some rain chances are likely to continue Monday and Tuesday. Some forecast models are spotting another spell of very cold weather around mid-late next week, but it’s too far out to determine how cold it’ll potentially be or any wintry weather complications. Still, we’re in an overall pattern into late February of generally colder-than-normal weather, so stay tuned for more!

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