Survey says …
The previously mentioned Seattle Public Schools “when do you want to make up snow days” survey is up (scroll to the bottom of this page). It asks participants to rank six options in order of preference — but murkily notes that some combination of the options will be required to make up all of the days missed so far this year (not to mention whatever’s yet to come). They’re laying pretty much everything on the table — “mid-winter” break, spring break, end of year. We’d just as soon get rid of “mid-winter” break — it’s so unnecessary, coming so close to Christmas vacation, and not that far ahead of spring break. But our opinion may not matter anywhere near as much as the teachers’ union’s opinion; here’s what you get on the “thank you” page after taking the survey:
The district will tally and consider the response, discuss and bargain the calendar with the Seattle Education Association, and announce the revised schedule as soon as possible.ÂÂÂ
Never mind the viaduct vote, looks like we get a snow-day vote!
In the middle of this article, Seattle Public Schools’ spokesperson says we may find out next week what the district plans to do about making up the days lost to snow, ice, wind, all that fun stuff that’s smacked us in the past couple months. We were going to suggest that SPS follow Issaquah’s lead and survey parents about their wishes … then we went to this page on the SPS site and discovered that the district plans to do exactly that. Says a survey will be linked from that page no later than 5 pm today (you can bet we’ll be checking). Can’t wait to see what the options are.
Back to school
Looks like Seattle Public Schools decided to open 2 hours late today. That may even have been overly cautious, since it hasn’t even dropped below freezing yet (we can hear the snow from the roof melting slowly through the rain-gutter drainpipe), but better safe than sorry. For next time (somehow you know there’ll be one), a city source tells us that whenever Seattle Public Schools has a weather closure, there are “snow camps” for child care at Hiawatha and Southwest Community Centers. We can’t find details online but you can check with the centers: here’s contact info for Hiawatha and Southwest.
Sugar and spice and everything n(ot )ice
The crowd at Thriftway is positively giddy about the afternoon melt-off giving them the chance to flee their snowbound domiciles … one lady in the meat section nearly mowed us down with enthusiasm, declaring without provocation, “This is the FIRST time I’ve been out in A WEEK! My freezer’s almost EMPTY! Seeing all this is like a CANDY STORE!” Oh by the way, at least as of 4 pm-ish, despite this morning’s snow, the arterials are in better shape than ever; the bridge doesn’t even have as much ice/slush on the inside shoulder as yesterday; but the side streets’ condition depends on what shape they were in before this morning. The iciest ones stayed that way; the ones where bare spots had started to bloom still show blacktop. Here’s hoping tonight doesn’t REALLY get all that cold …
Alki, or Alaska?
Even the beach got a blast of snow, and that made for some unusual sights, such as this one sent to us by Cami from AlkiNews.com:
Roads, buses, and so on
We haven’t been out driving but wanted to remind you that our West Seattle cams page has the city cameras for the bridge and for Fauntleroy/Alaska and Fauntleroy/35th. As for buses, we’re not seeing specific alerts but there’s a lot of great info on the Metro page including where the buses are and when. If you’ve got road info, feel free to post it in the comments here.
Where the snow belongs
Can’t resist sharing another beautiful photo, taken from Alki, sent to us by Bob Bollen. The Olympics’ most distinctive peaks, The Brothers, completely white … would rather see the rest of the season’s snow there than down here!
Road report, Monday afternoon
If you have Monday trash pickup, watch out for collection trucks, which are still trying to make their way around here on the south end of WS as of right now … The side streets on the higher hilltops are still very icy, but after a sunny slightly-above-freezing day, spots of blacktop have started to appear — ah, such a welcome sight, like the green tips of crocus leaves poking up in spring. But we digress. The arterials are just lovely, though the left edge of the westbound WS Bridge remains iced over, and the ramp to it from 99 has lingering slick spots. Enjoy it while you can, since the forecast for tomorrow hasn’t mellowed out yet (we’ve now got a “snow advisory” for 4 am-10 am, go to work late if possible) …
Now it’s clear, this is the snowiest spot in town
Has to be so. My gosh, there’s a tv news truck parked at the top of Cali Ave hill (near Ida), with its phone-pole-height antenna up in the air. The snowbound citizens of south West Seattle must be about to star on the 5 o’clock news.
Who gets the snowplow first
Figured a list like this had to be out there on the city website somewhere — and it is: The 2006-2007 Snow and Ice Routes. Zoom in and take a close look at the WS streets — it reveals, for example, that here on our end of WS, Cali is only considered a “primary” route as far south as Holden; that leaves a half-mile stretch at the highest elevations identified as “secondary.” Elsewhere, heaven forbid we ever get major snow down to the water — no part of Alki Ave or Beach Drive or even Harbor is considered primary OR secondary. Part of the info on this page explains how the routes are prioritized.
The s-word again
Snow is back in the forecast, this time for Monday night/Tuesday morning. At least those of us with Monday trash/recycling pickup will stay on schedule; for those who asked, here’s the latest for people who got skipped the last few days of last week.
Is it REALLY going to get above freezing today?
Looks like the “overnight” low was 18 degrees at 7 am. By 8, we were up to a balmy 20. Forecasts claim we’re headed for the upper 30s today. Meantime, the new discussion point around town seems to be, do you hate this, or do you love this? We overheard one woman yesterday afternoon chatting into a cell phone that she “feels energized by snow.” But we’ve been hit by a wave of comments and e-mails from folks on the other side, expressing the opinion many shared by day 3 or 4 into the post-windstorm power outage, “we are so DONE with this.” As for us, we’re trying to continue enjoying it on the premise that we aren’t likely to see anything like this for a long time, given it’s been 10 years since the LAST time. So we will cherish photos like this one in which we captured the Thistle Hill From Hell on Thursday afternoon (BEFORE city crews got to “secondary arterials” like this; sorry, no video of hapless folks sliding into poles):
Not just us
Seems the afternoon “flurries” hit elsewhere too. Some of the bare spots that were finally starting to emerge on our closest non-arterials are now frosted again. That’s supposedly over but now the latest warning … AIR STAGNATION ADVISORY! Which gives us an excuse to show one more photo from the incredibly CLEAR conditions back on Thursday — this one is NOT ours, but reader Bob Bollen gave us permission to post it (thanks!):
Name that snow(man?)
Spotted this afternoon on the curb in front of The Kenney along Fauntleroy, the best West Seattle snowman we’ve seen. However, we’re wondering, what is it supposed to be? Snow squirrel? Snow raccoon? Snow rat?
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