Local news
The Seattle Times on what it’s like here now:
A quarter-inch of frozen water ground the region to a halt.
…
Transportation — moving by any means — was all but impossible.
It was – you couldn’t walk, let alone drive.
King County Metro shut down all its buses. So did Pierce and Snohomish counties. Seattle-Tacoma International Airport briefly closed all three runways, an “unprecedented” situation. Paine Field closed. So did Highway 2 over Stevens Pass. Garbage pickup was canceled. Museums, theaters, libraries, the zoo, the aquarium: all closed. Doctor appointments moved online.
“Stay home if you can,” King County Executive Dow Constantine tweeted. “Please don’t go viral on TikTok trying to drive on the ice.”
But…
That’s my nabe. The hill is very steep.
I look forward to being able to walk around outside again!
Where did the quarter inch of frozen water come from?
Mountaineering spikes would be nifty for walking…
8°f here at my place this morning (Atlanta) but luckily no frozen precipitation — not like Snowpocalypse in 2014, which looked very similar to what’s going on there. Good way to illustrate people with no common sense. :D
@1 Partially melted and then refrozen snow. Turns roads into ice skating rinks.
No, where this quarter inch came from is frozen rain that fell overnight Thursday-Friday. There was a layer of melted then frozen underneath, but the frozen rain layer is a whole new level of slippery.
Looks like two, maybe three cars tried it. And is that someone diving for safety by the silver car at the corner house?
@4 Right, the frozen rain too. I once drove through the Smokies after a frozen rain event, and all the icicles on the trees made it look like some otherworldly landscape. When the sun peeked out it was so bright you could barely see. It was spectacular, but very treacherous.
Yes I know I’m right, I’m here living in it!
Bruce I can’t see anyone by the corner house, but I see a small blur just in front of the left edge of the sliding car as it gets to the bottom – can’t tell if it’s a person or an animal or neither. It seems to have escaped getting hit but the clip stops too soon to be sure.
Three years ago, almost, I stayed near about 1 block from the bottom of Queen Anne. That street is very steep and I can only imagine what would happen to a car were someone foolish enough to drive on it in this condition. I think it would be deadly.
Can confirm. I live at the top of that hill and it’s very very steep no matter how you descend it. There are a couple of places where you can go on the diagonal for two or three blocks, so that’s less steep, but then you get to a block that’s practically vertical.
Mike, the KEXP dj was playing all songs with ice in the title yesterday!
I’ll go back to the archives and listen!
Fellow readers, I recommend downloading the KEXP app as a good source of music pleasure.
We got much less, but our streets have been slippery enough that we need to drive with care…and of course, SUV drivers drove like it was August the 18th in the middle of a drought. Nearly ran us off the road when we ventured out enough to go to the grocery store.
And I imagine it’s worse elsewhere. Our city does a really good job of cleaning up the major roads. We’re planning to go to Grand Island tonight. They do a really bad job of cleaning off the roads. Fortunately, the inch and a half we got Thursday has been pelted with sunshine for the past two days. If we get home early enough (and we should), it shouldn’t have refrozen yet.
Driving home at 3-4 AM Friday morning was… Fun…
Took me about 3x as long and saw quite a few semis that just said “fuck it” including one that ended up straddling 3.5 lanes of a 4 lane highway. Fortunately those few of us out and about opted to travel at 5-10 miles an hour.
Definitely *shouldn’t* have been out driving but spending the night at the plant was a no go.
Glad you made it.
I know that it’s over now, and I’m still astonished that people would drive in it, but I have to admit that I walked out there and debated with myself about it. I stepped on the crunchy snow–snow with a one inch layer thick of ice on it–and argued with myself. “It’s not so bad, you might make it”, said one voice. Ultimately, the voice saying “you’ll be stranded at the best, and probably locked in legal worries from crashing into other cars or maybe even killing someone” was the one that won.
That I even HAD that debate in my head, worries me.
Trader Joe’s crunchy treats for the cats are not worth that.
It’s ok. The “you might make it” voice was testing you, and you passed.