6:01 PM: Thanks to the texter who sent that beautiful panoramic view of the Olympics at the height of today’s sunshine. Much of the snow that fell last night is gone, and aside from the shadiest spots, roads are dry. But the National Weather Service‘s newest forecast says snow is likely Friday afternoon, and possibly Friday night too. SDOT, meantime, says it’s ready: “With a goal of achieving wet and bare street conditions on arterials for residents and travelers, SDOT snow crews are prepared to deploy this evening to pretreat arterials with additional emphasis on public transit routes before Friday’s morning commute.” And its media advisory says the “SDOT snow team is on standby for Saturday and Sunday” just in case. We of course are always on standby too and appreciate the heads-up (206-293-6302) when you see snow start to fall (and other newsworthy sights).

8:51 PM: Just in from Metro:

While transit is currently operating normally throughout Metro’s service area, Metro Transit and other agencies are monitoring weather forecasts and conditions in the event that a predicted midday Friday snowfall could cause traffic or travel challenges in Metro’s service area.

Metro encourages all riders to be prepared in case of a weather event.

Snow & ice
If there are significant or widespread transit reroutes or other service impacts due to weather or road conditions, information will be posted on the ‘Snow, ice & flood alerts’ page on Metro’s website, and Transit Alerts will be sent to subscribers of affected service.

If there are just a few minor or scattered impacts, Metro will send Transit Alerts to subscribers of affected routes.

Transit riders are encouraged to sign up for Transit Alerts for the routes they ride, however, it is also easy to see recent alerts by visiting Metro’s RSS page and selecting the desired route.

We will again launch the morning traffic/transit/weather watch earlier – by 5:30 – even if it isn’t snowing (yet), just so you can check in, whatever the conditions.