Last night, we published a sort of a tribute to The Great Walk Home, endured by dozens, maybe hundreds, who just gave up on trying to navigate the roads via bus or car on Monday night. It’s also been pointed out that bicycles beat the gridlock too. West Seattleite Eric Shalit, above, has published a review of the gear that helped (including studded snow tires). You can read about it here.

And here’s a great tale of biking it home to West Seattle that snowy night, published at the Seattle Times (WSB partner) site, written by Times transportation reporter Mike Lindblom. His hook: The bike he used to beat the gridlock is a wide-tire model previously ridden only in Hawaii! (Mike also reported major chunks of the 5-section “Why Can’t Seattle Handle Snow?” story that’s been getting a lot of traction.)

(Refresh for latest pic of WS Bridge, looking eastbound, and 1st Ave. S. Bridge, more on the WSB Traffic cams page)
Starting this a little earlier than planned, as there are various things to note: South Seattle Community College is closing at 2 pm and canceling evening classes, for starters. This report will again be “stuck” to the top of the page, with newer news appearing below it for now. You can find the morning/midday/early-afternoon reader reports on road conditions by going here. If the clouds are worrying you, here’s the forecast as updated this morning:

MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF VERY LIGHT SNOW OR FLURRIES. NO ACCUMULATION EXPECTED.

2:34 PM: No road problems reported currently (or all day!), in case you were wondering. Also a reminder that both city libraries and community centers are closing at 5 pm.

4:48 PM UPDATE: No problems on the roads. Reminder that we have published our “who’s open Thanksgiving” list for restaurants, grocery stores, and coffee shops – find it here – and the West Seattle Holidays page has a few other Thanksgiving notes, such as holiday workouts. If you have to drive tomorrow morning to get to Grandma’s house (or anywhere else) for Thanksgiving, WSDOT warns that road ice is possible with temperatures still low and a “mix of rain or snow in the forecast.” (Since WSB is 24/7/365, if there’s anything you need to know in or around West Seattle, we’ll be here.)

5:01 PM UPDATE: There’s a new “winter weather advisory” in effect 6 pm tonight to 1 pm tomorrow, with that chance of light snow/flurries tonight/tomorrow morning, plus, once the temperatures warm tomorrow morning, “a chance of light freezing rain or light sleet.”

5:56 PM UPDATE: Metro will remain on snow routing through at least tomorrow morning. Tomorrow it’s on Sunday service; Friday it’s on “reduced weekday service.” And Thursday-Friday, there’s no King County Water Taxi (that goes for the shuttle buses too).

6:49 PM UPDATE: Via Facebook, Stacey reports some snowflakes in north West Seattle. Nothing down here so far.

*The afternoon edition has just launched here*

(11:09 AM TOPLINE: No problems reported; bridge/Viaduct ‘bare/dry’ per city … Trash/recycling pickup is CANCELED … Most schools closed … Quick links below cams)

(Refresh for latest pic of WS Bridge, looking eastbound, and 1st Ave. S. Bridge, more on the WSB Traffic cams page)
One more icy commute before the holiday. Metro remains on snow routing; the West Seattle Water Taxi is back in service. Most schools are out; here’s the list. (By the way – the University of Washington changed its mind late last night and is now closed for the day.)

6:07 AM UPDATE: Just took a quick spin around online and so far no major problems reported in our area right now. 17 degrees at Sea-Tac at the top of the hour.

6:30 AM UPDATE: Thanks for again sharing road reports (and other updates) in the comments. We’re also monitoring, and posting updates to, Twitter and Facebook. The weather forecast looks the same as it did last night; the National Weather Service has renewed its “special weather statement,” warning of “sub-freezing” temperatures through Thanksgiving morning – again today, we won’t get past freezing, but tomorrow afternoon, the 40s should return.

6:39 AM UPDATE: Trash/recycling pickup POSTPONED again today – as it was yesterday – put out double next week; this just in from Seattle Public Utilities. (And if you have Thursday pickup, that’s already postponed till Friday, for the holiday.)

7:15 AM UPDATE: Starting to hear from some people with water trouble. Angela at 35th/112th has none. Someone on Twitter has frozen pipes. We’ll be checking with Seattle Public Utilities to see if they know of any major problems – if it’s just your house, though, the responsibility is yours. A few reminders originally posted yesterday: Today’s Rotary and Kiwanis meetings are canceled; Seattle Public Library branches will be open noon-5 pm. Also heard this morning from Allstar Fitness: Open regular hours but morning classes canceled, and SW Yancy is still very icy.

7:37 AM UPDATE: The city has just issued its latest roundup of service status. You can read the whole thing here; highlights – Viaduct/West Seattle Bridge “bare and dry”; roads considered “snow routes” are in “good” condition; community centers and Camp Long will be open 10 am-5 pm for drop-in activities but programs are canceled; the roundup also has advice about dealing with frozen/broken pipes!

8:04 AM UPDATE: Here’s that pipe advice, from SPU.

8:37 AM UPDATE: Still problem-free, roads and buses, per WSB commenters and the other streams we’re watching. Here’s our most-recent photos of nearby California/Thistle corner (both arterials) – typical, says the city, for major routes:

9:30 AM UPDATE: Still quiet!

11:09 AM UPDATE: From SDOT via Twitter: “SDOT has 12 pedestrian crews out clearing city owned sidewalks and landings right now.” We have “unstuck” this item so it’s no longer atop the page, but we will launch an evening-commute version after 3 pm, with other news higher up in the meantime. Once again, THANKS for sharing information photos, and for just being here.

(UPDATED TOPLINES, 10:21 PM: Bridges OK. Many roads icy. Metro info here – snow routing again Wednesday. Water Taxi resumes Wednesday. Most schools closed Wednesday, closures updated here)

3:01 PM: No new snow today – so all you have to worry about this afternoon/evening is ice. Traveling from south to north West Seattle at midday today, we saw several SDOT trucks, including the one above. They say 11 plow-spreader trucks are operating “in the south end” along with 2 “brine flush” trucks. They’re monitoring the bridges while considering salt before the evening commute. So how are the bridges? Here are the latest live pictures:

(Refresh for latest pic of WS Bridge, looking eastbound, and 1st Ave. S. Bridge, more on the WSB Traffic cams page)
For earlier road reports, check comments on our previous continuous-coverage update – but now it’s time to look ahead and share news on what’s happening for the rest of the day/evening. The city now is updating an online list of road closures – click here. (Highland Park Way is the biggest one in our area right now.)

But even if a road’s open, it can be treacherous, as this Seattle City Light truck found out on Fairmount (thanks to S for the photo/info):

She says it’s been there at least an hour, and another City Light truck, with cones, is blocking the road uphill. And there’s the garbage truck stuck west of The Junction since *yesterday* – James shared this video of the tow truck running a line way down hill:

Remember that SDOT is only working on the major roads – lots of icy neighborhood streets, like 106th and 34th looking east, in this photo from MargL:

Dwight sent this photo from 44th, closed “just up from Brace Point” because a water main broke, leaving a thick sheet of ice on the street:

Meantime, Misty reports via Facebook that her power is back after 20 hours and a long cold night. City Light still has a few people out in West Seattle.

NOTES FOR TONIGHT: Community Centers closing 4 pm. City libraries closing 5 pm (open noon-5 tomorrow). West Seattle YMCA closing 8 pm.

4:44 PM UPDATE: Seattle Public Schools has just announced no school tomorrow, as have Hope Lutheran School and Seattle Lutheran High School. On the roads, there are multiple units responding to a crash at 5400 West Marginal Way SW (map), but we have no details yet.

5 PM UPDATE: A stalled vehicle reported on the southbound Alaskan Way Viaduct near Columbia onramp.

5:54 PM UPDATE: If you wonder what the fire trucks are doing at Junction QFC – we’ve published a short story about it; there’s a water problem, but the store’s still open. Another business note: Barnes & Noble-Westwood says they’re closing at 6 pm but expecting a normal 9 am opening tomorrow.

6:36 PM UPDATE: Still no reports of trouble. Hope everyone is home safe and warm by now. We’re now under a Special Weather Statement – the National Weather Service says subfreezing temperatures are expected to continue into Thanksgiving morning, and then things will trend back toward “normal.” Also continuing to add Wednesday school closures/changes to the page linked atop this story.

6:49 PM UPDATE: Looking for Sea-Tac Airport info? West Seattle’s Alice Enevoldsen (of AlicesAstroInfo.com among other things) has been tweeting about her odyssey to get to the airport. Her reports include: Highway 509 “wet one lane, piled slush on lane edges,” exits icy (like 518 and 518 to 509), no taxi lines that she saw, “airport overall calm and quiet,” icy roads through Burien and White Center. Read all her updates by going to twitter.com/alicesastroinfo.

7:06 PM UPDATE: Chimney fire call in the 3000 block of 49th SW – scanner describes it as “possible” chimney fire.

7:16 PM UPDATE: New Metro info in for tomorrow, which gives us the occasion to use this photo they sent along earlier today:

That’s King County Executive Dow Constantine watching as Metro’s Saravanan Thangavelu and Mark Gorow prepare a new round of Transit Alerts to go out to bus riders. Highlights of Metro’s latest update: Keep staying inside if at all possible; tomorrow morning’s conditions aren’t expected to be much better, and buses are expected to be on snow routing again. You’ll find Wednesday updates by 4 am here. Metro will be out overnight checking conditions and also retrieving stuck buses.

7:38 PM UPDATE: The Kiwanis Club of West Seattle and Rotary Club of West Seattle both have now called off tomorrow’s meetings.

10:17 PM UPDATE: What a difference a night makes – it’s been really quiet, no word of anything like last night’s traffictastrophes. A few more schools have made their decisions for tomorrow; here’s our updated list. We also have word from a WSB’er that Superior and District Court are both closed again tomorrow – which she says hasn’t happened two days in a row in the more-than-a-few years she’s worked for the court. Metro is DEFINITELY on snow routing for the morning, and the Water Taxi is scheduled to be back in operation. Beautiful shot here by William, taken this morning:

Also from the West Seattle shore – dramatic photos of erosion that was revealed this morning, in the wake of last night’s wind (and preceding storminess) – see them here.

11:11 PM UPDATE: We are “unsticking” this story and it will fall back down the page to the point where it began (you can find the quicklink from the TOP STORIES list on the sidebar). We’ll start a morning commute story in the 5 am hour; of course if anything major happens in the meantime, we remain on 24/7 patrol, so we’ll report it separately.

Many talked about this in various venues Monday night … in comments on our afternoon/evening snow updates, on Facebook, on Twitter … but we thought that before it recedes too far into memory, The Great Monday Night Walk Home should be commemorated with its own story. Jeff Johnson shared the top photo: “I gave up on the buses stuck in traffic and joined hundreds of others hiking our way back to West Seattle. … Warming up at home now!” The next one is from Brian Zenk:

He wrote:

Total trek time was from 5 to 8:15.
I sat on a bus between Denny Way and Pike for one hour.
I jumped off the bus around five.
I finally arrived at home after walking from Pike Street near the market. The bridges were blocked and I walked with many others who could not sit in the bus. We were blocked by a freight train and had to wait to cross the tracks. This was down near Home Depot. When we arrived at the lower West Seattle Bridge, there was no salt or gravel on the bridge and we could smell burning rubber of car tires.

Long Bach Nguyen captured this scene of people walking on the south end of California SW:

And Josh Wendt shared scenes from his trip home – he says he works at Harborview Medical Center and took about an hour and a half to get home to 37th SW. Note the bumper-to-bumper traffic along Alaskan Way:

And looking back at The Bridge:

Last but not least – we included this video in last night’s coverage, but it’s the only clip we have of The Big Walk. Bill Schrier, who shot it, was walking home from downtown – where he works as the tech boss for the City of Seattle:

Thanks to everyone who’s sharing their photos, video, and stories.