North Olympic Peninsula roads remained slick on Saturday with no reports of injury wrecks but many of vehicles sliding into ditches in Clallam and Jefferson counties.
“Stay home if you can. Hunker down,” said Sgt.Kevin Miller with the Port Angeles Police Department.
He was echoed by Keppie Keplinger, deputy director of the Jefferson County Emergency Management Department, who said: “Slow down and be careful.”
Hurricane Ridge Road was open on Saturday but the Ski and Snowboard Area at the Ridge was not.
Despite the 42 inches of snow recorded Friday at the Waterhole Snotel site at the Ridge, the snow was too unconsolidated to build the tracks needed to run the lifts, according to the Facebook page of the Hurricane Ridge Winter Sports Club, which operates the ski area for Olympic National Park.
“We will not be open this weekend,” the site said. “New storms starting on Tuesday so we will try again next weekend.”
For lowland drivers, snow isn’t the major problem on the Peninsula now; it’s ice. And the arctic air funneled through the Fraser Valley Outflow in British Columbia is keeping temperatures low until a slow warming begins on Monday, according to the National Weather Service (NWS).
Midday Saturday, temperatures were 24 degrees in Port Angeles, 21 in Port Townsend, about 27 in Forks and in the 20s in the foothills, according to Maddie Kristell, meteorologist with the Seattle office of the NWS.
Warming will be gradual on Monday, she said, with temperatures in the mid- to upper-30s followed by a dip into sub-freezing temperatures that evening, again creating ice. Temperatures will be closer to 40 on Tuesday but another weather system will move in that afternoon with a potential for freezing rain.
No more snow is expected in the near future and the high wind gusts seen in the Cascades are not happening on the Peninsula, according to Kristell.
No word was received on Saturday about conditions at Morse Creek, except that most roads in the region are compact snow and ice.
On Thursday night, all available tow trucks were in use getting people out of the S-curve at Morse Creek, according to Miller. State Patrol and state Department of Transportation were involved in piloting people through the morass of cars sliding off the road, which slowed traffic by anywhere from two to four hours, according to reports.
No widespread outages were reported by either Clallam or Jefferson public utility districts on Saturday but Jefferson PUD did issue a plea for customers to conserve electricity as much as possible to stave off possible outages.
Olympic National Park has closed all campgrounds.
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Exective Editor Leah Leach can be reached at leah.leach@peninsuladailynews.com
EARLIER STORY
Between three and six inches of snow fell on many areas of the North Olympic Peninsula overnight Thursday, leaving icy roads and an arctic chill that closed schools, opened warming centers and knocked out electricity for a couple hundred people.
“That area was the region that got the most snow of this event, which is typical for this kind of a pattern,” said Kirby Cook, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Seattle, referring to the weather phenomenon known as a Fraser River Outflow, which pushes cold air from British Columbia into Western Washington.
Temperatures were low but not quite record-breaking, Cook said, and would remain below average through the weekend and possibly even into next week.
“For the rest of this weekend and into early next week it’ll be really dry and cold,” Cook said. “Northeast winds will be continuing though they should be easing significantly tomorrow.”
Friday’s temperatures remained in the teens. NWS forecasts highs in the 20s today and in the 30s on Sunday, with temperatures rising slightly into the week.
Temperatures this cold endanger people who must be outside or who don’t have access to shelter, Cook said, and can cause infrastructure issues not typical for the region, such as frozen pipes.
Cold temperatures and peak electrical usage Friday morning left roughly 290 homes without power along Cook Avenue and 49th Street in Port Townsend, according to Jameson Hawn, digital communications specialist with the Jefferson County Public Utility District.
Jeff Mather, from Port Townsend, finishes up shoveling about 4 inches of snow from his driveway on Friday morning after a winter storm passed through late Thursday evening. Mather moved to Port Townsend from Fiji in 2019 and is getting used to the winter conditions in the Pacific Northwest. (STEVE MULLENSKY/FOR PENINSULA DAILY NEWS)
“This morning being so cold just really pushed the system,” Hawn said.
A built-in safety feature shut the system down before any extensive damage could be done, but line crews have to manually re-energize the grid neighborhood by neighborhood for power to fully be restored.
Scattered outages were also reported in other parts of Port Townsend and Port Ludlow, with all but seven restored by 4 p.m. Friday. No outages were reported by Clallam PUD customers on Friday.
Anne Chastain, program coordinator with Clallam County Emergency Management, said that while the weather was an inconvenience, it had not impacted residents enough to trigger an emergency response.
“People still able to get the vital things they need,” Chastain said. “People can still get to the store. They just need to drive safe.”
A closure on U.S. Highway 101 preventing travel to and from the county might activate an emergency response, Chaistain said, but so far Emergency Management’s service have not been requested.
Several cities and organizations have opened or are prepared to open warming shelters for those looking to get out of the cold, Chastain said, and county libraries are available as warming centers during their regular business hours.
Though major roads and highways remained open Friday, many public schools across the Peninsula closed for the day, citing hazardous road conditions. Public school districts were closed in Port Angeles, Sequim, Port Townsend, Chimacum, and Quilcene, while Brinnon opened late. Quillayute Valley School District in Forks operated on its usual schedule. Cape Flattery in Clallam Bay and Neah Bay did not announce a change in schedule.
Darryl Wood of Port Angeles makes his way down icy steps at Bethany Pentecostal Church in Port Angeles after shoveling snow and spreading an ice-melting agent on Friday morning. (KEITH THORPE/PENINSULA DAILY NEWS)
The National Resources Conservation Service reported 42 inches at the Snotel Waterhole site at Hurricane Ridge on Friday but Hurricane Ridge Road remained closed to the public. Olympic National Park said on its website the road will be evaluated again Saturday for potential opening.
Operations crews with the Hurricane Ridge Winter Sports Club were able to access the Ridge on Friday, but said there was not enough good quality snow to begin operations for the season, according to Danielle Lawrence, a volunteer with the club.
“The temperatures are supposed to stay cool so I don’t think we’ll lose much snow from the sun,” Lawrence said. “But we don’t have another front coming in to tip us over the edge to operate.”
Precipitation isn’t forecasted for the region until at least Wednesday.
The club is hosting a screening of a snowboarding film at the Field Arts & Events Hall at 201 W. Front St., Port Angeles, on Thursday. The film, “Flying High Again,” is produced by snow apparel company Teton Gravity Research. Tickets are $15 advance at https://fieldhallevents.org/#/events or $20 at the door.
Doors open at 5 p.m. with drinks and light menu fair available, and the film begins at 7 p.m.
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Reporter Peter Segall can be reached at peter.segall@peninsuladailynews.com.
