Snow storm hits Columbia Basin

MOSES LAKE - It was bad but it could have been a whole lot worse.

Cold weather, wind and several inches of snow began whipping Grant County early Wednesday, but conditions were better here than in other areas of the state, which saw more than a foot of snow.

The worst of the storm has moved past this region, according to Matt Fugazzi, lead forecaster with the National Weather Service forecast office in Airway Heights. He predicted the Moses Lake area will probably see a few more snow showers, maybe even up to an inch or so, but no major accumulations beyond what has already fallen.

"The next storm system is due sometime late Friday and you might get 1 to 3 inches out of that," he said Wednesday evening. "After that the snow levels increase so it looks like you're going to have mostly rain ... Friday evening to Saturday."

Meanwhile, from Olympia to the Oregon coast, the same storm system closed schools, caused dozens of flight cancellations and clogged roads with snow and hundreds of accidents.

Olympia had nearly a foot of new snow on the ground by late morning and nearly 11 inches was measured at the airport Wednesday. The record is 14.2 inches on Jan. 24, 1972.

Some state employees drove into work while others walked in and at least one employee was seen cross-country skiing to the campus for the 60 day legislative session, which began Jan. 9, according to the Associated Press.

Just south of the capitol, Lewis County had the highest snowfall amounts, ranging from 12 to 17 inches, and in northern Oregon high winds hammered parts of the coast and caused power outages to tens of thousands of customers, with reports of gusts of 110 mph and more.

Rita Bjork with the Grant County PUD said Wednesday evening that while it was windy throughout the day in the Columbia Basin, power lines were holding steady.

"Thankfully, we've had no outages," she said.

Further east, Washington State University's Pullman campus suspended operations through Thursday as a result of continuing snowfall across the region. The National Weather Service indicated southeastern Washington could experience high winds with as much as ten to 16 inches of additional snowfall between tonight and Thursday evening.

The last weather-related closure of the Pullman campus occurred in February of 2008.

Statewide, in a 24-hour period ending at 9 a.m. Wednesday, the Washington State Patrol responded to nearly 500 collisions on Western Washington roads, according to spokesman Bob Calkins.

"I saw a guy in my rear mirror," said State Trooper Guy Gill. "I saw headlights and tail lights and headlights and tail lights again as he spun around off the road."

While winter weather caused traffic slowdowns throughout the day in Moses Lake, there were relatively few collisions and other incidents, according to Capt. Dave Sands with the Moses Lake Police Department.

He said there were five traffic related incidents in the city from Wednesday morning until about 3 p.m., two of which concerned vehicles that were stuck while three were minor collisions. None reportedly involved injuries.

The number is low for a large snow event.

"We'll see what the numbers bear out this evening, but so far I'm happy," he said.

Moses Lake Public Works Superintendent Tim Varney said the city was operating three snow plows from about 6 a.m. until 7:30 p.m. last night. The morning crew was scheduled to pick up the job again at 2 a.m. before recommencement of morning traffic, he said.

The city and the county both give priority for plowing and sanding to major and school bus routes followed by minor arterials with steep grades, other arterials, rural and local access connectors, dead-end rural and local access roads.

Moses Lake owns five trucks, Varney said, each with a sander box and three with plows attached. The city plans to purchase a fourth plow this summer for use next season.

Moses Lake Finance Director Ron Cone said the city's snow and ice removal, which is funded from the street fund, varies quite a bit from year to year but typically falls in the range of $170,000.

This is for maintenance, equipment, and de-icer and doesn't include labor, he added.

The inclement weather led to just a few cancellations across the Columbia Basin region Wednesday. The Ephrata School District joined St. Rose of Lima Catholic School in letting kids out early due to poor visibility, wind and drifting snow. Quincy School District stayed open, while the Moses Lake and Soap Lake school districts canceled some after school activities.

Soap Lake's city council meeting was canceled, as was a Third Wednesday Art Event at Masquers Theater in Soap Lake.

Both will be rescheduled.

People are keeping close tabs on the storm as it moves over the state, according to the Washington State Department of Transportation, which reported Wednesday afternoon their website had nearly 1.5 million unique visitors over the past 36 hours.

More weather and travel information is available at www.wsdot.wa.gov or in the Columbia Basin Herald on page A2.