(this post covers snow coverage 8:41 am-12:09 pm Sunday. Follow this link to afternoon coverage)
(photo looking east up Thistle from California near WSB HQ)
(sunrise from 39th and Andover, courtesy of John)
(photo courtesy Babs)
Just got a note from Ron that the #128 bus is stuck on the Morgan hill at 39th, going eastbound. He adds, “Cars are also going west, down the hill and sliding most of the way down. I hope SPD or SDOT closes the road soon.” JayDee “above Alki” is hearing tire-spinning that doesn’t “sound successful.” Here’s the “live” city traffic cam looking northeast from Fauntleroy/Alaska:
Lina just added this comment on our early-morning post: “35th/Roxbury looks sketchy and the few cars i see are going really slow by my house.” 9 AM UPDATE: Just checked the conditions outside our house and at the nearest major intersection. The snow is CRUNCHY — aka ice — different from the softer texture when we were out walking after midnight, and the cars coming down Thistle hill toward California to turn north are going very slowly. This, to boot, is a “plow route.” This is the view looking north on California:
More photos welcome, road conditions and otherwise – editor@westseattleblog.com – official information on city roads is hard to come by so info-sharing like this is the best way to share word of what you’re seeing. A new forecast has just been posted – the “winter weather advisory” has been extended till 3 pm and there’s a prediction of possible “new snow accumulations” this afternoon. (Wondering how the Jingle Bell Run is going downtown? Here’s a pic that Mark from West Seattle just sent out via Twitter – and another one from when it started – quite the crowd!) Wildlife note: Previous post’s comments included a discussion about how to help hummingbirds (the flowers “ours” usually drink from are now frozen over) – here’s a WSB Forums post with a suggestion (and photo). 9:34 AM UPDATE: Shari reports, “I just wanted to let everyone know that 35th Ave SW at Camp Long is a sheet of ice. The road doesn’t look bad so I went and checked and it is ice — I was slipping all over in shoes. I see people helping heading to go down the hill but I haven’t seen anyone coming as though they came up the hill.” We can say the same thing for California/Thistle – just went out with video camera to see if anyone, snowplow included, would drive by, but not a soul – and if you walk out into the street, you can tap inch-high ice ridges with your shoe. Meanwhile, WSB contributing photojournalist Christopher Boffoli reports from The Junction that THE FARMERS’ MARKET IS ON – 15 to 20 vendors are there now, setting up. He’ll be sending pix in a bit but also reports, “Some of the vendors from outside of Seattle said that things outside of west Seattle were better. They were surprised the roads in WS were so bad. They said the bridge was pretty nasty getting over here.” Earlier in The Junction, Larry got this photo – describing it as “street art”:
CLICK AHEAD TO READ THE OTHER SUNDAY MORNING UPDATES, WHICH CONTINUED TILL NOON:
In comments elsewhere, Peaches asks whether anyone’s actually seen a snowplow or sander, and Sue says Fauntleroy Way (south of the Triangle area) is “a mess.” ADDED 9:54 AM: Pamela McCarty from Nico and Zoe Toys sends this photo of icy 36th SW, looking north toward Morgan (that’s the back side of U-Haul):
Outside WSB HQ, wind’s kicking up, blowing snow off the tree branches, and of course creating that dangerous thing known as WIND CHILL … 10:05 AM: Stephen Hughes-Jelen sends this report from Hotwire Coffee (WSB sponsor) in The Junction: “The sun is out, and melting the surface making the roadways extremely slippery. Wendy & I came down 35th from High Point earlier without a problem on snow tires, but I suspect that chains are going to be required for the return trip unless the sanding trucks get out there. California heading South from Andover was sheet ice and now extremely hazardous. Cars are traveling very slowly.” Not far from there, here’s a Christopher Boffoli photo of the Farmers’ Market, just before it opened:
And another one:
Christopher says the Farmers’ Market program director was there briefly and: “… she told me that she lives in Wallingford and that the roads there were just as bad as they are in West Seattle. She said her immediate thought was that they should cancel the farmers markets. But then she thought she should check and see how many farmers and vendors were already on the road. Many were so they decided to open.” 10:22 AM UPDATE: Just so you know, there’s no official city webpage with bulletins on closed roads so we’re monitoring various sources including the scanner, which has lots of chatter about roads, though what we’re hearing right now is mostly elsewhere in the city. Here’s the latest “live” picture from the West Seattle Bridge cam, pointing east from the high rise (whenever you refresh this page, or our Traffic page, you’ll see the newest pic from that camera):
10:33 AM: From the comments: “The Charlestown Hill (at 46th) is closed at the bottom of the hill but not marked at the top. Please do not attempt to go down this hill — it is solid ice under the snow.” (That’s a tough hill in ANY condition.) Meanwhile, a photo from the Alki Point end of Alki Ave, from Meredith:
Many have asked about the rest of the city. We’ll add the links to other neighborhood news sites that are covering the weather. First:
My Ballard
Capitol Hill Seattle
Central District News
Will add to the list as we find updated elsewhere-in-Seattle snow coverage. We’re hearing a lot of Beacon Hill road trouble on the scanner, but BH’s neighborhood blog isn’t updated yet. WEST SEATTLE ROAD BULLETIN, 10:40 AM: Scanner says Highland Park Way is going to be closed, “from the top,” per SPD. And from Westwood, Annie sent this photo of bus trouble on SW Barton:
More from Westwood vicinity – check the comments for Roger’s report on his “failed attempt to get to the airport” heading through Westwood etc. from Upper Fauntleroy/Gatewood. Also, this photo is just in from Bruce, taken within the past hour at 35th/Thistle:
Bruce says, “The red Explorer to the left seemed to start it all by getting stuck and sliding backwards- this caused the jam up and caused the 21 to stop and have a very hard time getting going again. It eventually made its way kind of sideways up the hill. I thought Metro chained up its buses. Just before this I noticed the 22 and the 560 going up 35th as well. Maybe they were on snow routes.” 10:56 AM: Event cancellation: Just got word that today’s Seattle Glee Club concert at Peace Lutheran in Gatewood is canceled, no reschedule date yet. Let us know of any other event cancellations. And of course as the day and night continue, we’ll watch the school situation too. Road crews, by the way, are just getting the closure signs up at Highland Park Way/Holden in H-Park. More Junction-area photos just in from Christopher, starting with these:
Lots more road reports coming in on the comments too – thanks for sharing there and also via e-mail. For those asking about Admiral, JayDee sent this within the past hour: “56 eastbound stuck on Admiral; 51 having trouble. No chains on buses. 55 going north south on CA. Admiral has slick spots, a ford sedan vainly spinning wheels. The odd fool speeding down Admiral. Walking crunchy but doable.” 11:10 AM ROAD BULLETIN: Southwest Holden to be closed westbound at 16th, “a couple cars went sideways” per scanner. They’re also calling for a sand truck. ANOTHER EVENT CANCELLATION: The WSB Forum members’ holiday party/donation drive at Big Al Brewing set for this afternoon has just been postponed. We’re going to start a separate post listing any and all cancellations we get, in addition to adding them here as they come in. 11:19 AM UPDATE: From Pat at the foot of the California SW hill south of Morgan Junction (map): “Just talked to a woman who spent an hour waiting for the bus at the bottom of the hill – she witnessed 4 car to car accidents and one pedestrian hit – I assume lightly since there were no sirens. I spent some time turning cars away at the top of the hill due to the snow/ice getting polished by earlier drivers and most every car gettingsideways. It should be closed until sanded but noting posted as of 5 minutes ago.” Also a road report from a West Seattleite who tried to take his daughter to the hospital because she got hurt sledding — he says “Admiral is a sheet of ice” and he had to turn back around. (The lack of a hospital in West Seattle is brought up in many issue discussions … including, what happens when serious road work isolates us further?) On a separate note, just heard from Holly in Seaview who is back from Morgan Junction and says almost every car is spinning out – best to stay home and follow the advice shown near her dog Cali:
Ominous exchange on the scanner just now – dispatcher telling an officer that last they’d heard, “SDOT is out of signs for closing down roads.” 11:34 AM UPDATE: From Mel in comments, advice (she HAS to drive today for work): “… by far the best route around is Delridge (way better than 35th) and taking the lowland water route around Alki instead of Admiral or California. Very easy drive this morning.” Junction, not so easy – here’s yet another of Christopher’s photos:
In comments, Mary says there’s an additional hazard to dangerous driving conditions: “… a kid in blue coat is standing at the corner of 35th & Willow throwing snowballs at cars.” Side note: Several of our other WSB pages have other angles on snow, too – follow the link to the Blogs page, for example, to see what blog authors around West Seattle are posting; the Traffic page has “live” camera links, from West Seattle, The Bridge, and relevant I-5, 99, and even White Center views; the More page has mentions of West Seattle from citywide media. ADDED 11:46 AM: Here is a GREAT Alki overview from Chris Benning:
11:55 AM UPDATE: Help may be on the way. Recent snowplow sightings, in comments and this one just received via e-mail: “Sanding truck and snow plow are now going down Barton – just going by 40th, down toward Fauntleroy Center.” Which is good, because we’ve just received word that conditions are pretty bad down there. We’re going to use those pictures to start our afternoon post at the top of the page, now that it’s noon. Look for the link to that momentarily. 12:08 PM: Please join the afternoon coverage here. Thanks!
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