First significant snowfall of winter blankets Moses Lake
Michael's Market and Bistro employee Mike Stevens cleans the sidewalk outside the bistro Wednesday morning.
Cheryl Schweizer/Columbia Basin Herald
Michael's Market and Bistro employee Mike Stevens cleans the sidewalk outside the bistro Wednesday morning.
James Habedenk, athletic custodian for the Moses Lake School District, pits his tractor against the snow while clearing sidewalks around Lions Field and Frontier Middle School Wednesday.
Doris Rosenow, an employee of Stella and Me boutique in downtown Moses Lake, shovels the snow in front of the boutique as snow falls on Wednesday morning.
MOSES LAKE — The snow Wednesday morning was almost too much for James Habedenk’s tractor.
Habedenk, athletic custodian for the Moses Lake School District, was plowing the sidewalks around Frontier Middle School and Lions Field. The little tractor did okay until it got to some deep snow right outside of the Lions Field locker rooms. Then, its back wheels just couldn’t get a grip.
Valerie Thaler, meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Spokane, said mid-morning temperatures in Moses Lake were hovering around 32 degrees.
“That’s when we see the heavy, wet snow,” she said.
“There will be a brief break from the precipitation,” Thaler added, for New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. But the next storm system, due Friday night into Saturday, will be different.
“It’s going to be a warmer weather system,” she said, and the precipitation should fall as rain.
The first significant snowstorm of the winter dumped an estimated three to four inches on Grant County, and surrounding areas, and caused people to break out their snow shovels, snow plows and snow blowers. Grant County PUD employee Hope Sanchez was shoveling the sidewalk outside of the PUD office in Moses Lake mid-morning Wednesday, and not for the first time.
“It’s my third time around, actually,” she said. “I’ve been here since 4 (a.m.).”
Normally, the first snow of the winter — and a heavy, wet, slippery snow — would bring with it some car accidents. But Washington State Patrol Trooper John Bryant said Wednesday the accident rate was pretty low.
Bryant answered his phone while at the scene of an accident on I-90 near Vantage, where a truck slid off the road.
“You’ve got this heavy, wet snow,” Bryant said, adding the resulting slushy conditions are a hazard for unwary drivers.
“It’s a lot different this year,” Bryant said.
Normally, in similar conditions, WSP troopers would respond to three or four accidents at a time, he said. There were fewer cars and trucks on the road.
“The number of vehicles is a lot less,” Bryant said.
The trick to getting from one place to another on a snowy day is taking it slowly, Bryant said. Drivers in cars and trucks with good traction sometimes make the mistake of thinking they have more control than they actually possess.
“They think they’re invulnerable. No, not really,” Bryant said.
Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at [email protected].
