Warmer temperatures today should send the snow dripping away.
The lowland areas of the North Olympic Peninsula were dusted with snow Wednesday morning, and some areas at higher elevations may have had about 1 or 2 inches, said Johnny Burg, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Seattle.
Little accumulation
A rain and snow mix was expected this morning throughout the Peninsula but with little accumulation of snow, he said.
“By the afternoon, it will change to rain,” Burg said.
“[Today] is a transition day, starting out with snow and then moving to rain.”
The National Weather Service reported total snow accumulations Monday and Tuesday of 13 inches five miles southwest of Sequim, 11 inches near the Lower Elwha Klallam tribal reservation, 9.7 inches just southwest of Port Angeles, 7.6 inches at Mount Pleasant and 1 inch seven miles west of Forks.
The Port Townsend, Chimacum and Port Hadlock areas each received about 4 inches of snow during the storm.
Temperatures plummeted, with subfreezing temperatures locking in the Peninsula all week.
High temperatures in the 40s are expected today, Burg said.
Forks, Sequim and Clallam Bay-Sekiu are expected to warm up to nearly 44 degrees, while Port Angeles should see ice melt with a high of 39, and Port Townsend’s high is expected to be 41 degrees, Burg said.
Today, “we are looking for it to be windy and rainy at night,” he said.
Clallam County road crews are on call if warmer temperatures overnight leave slushy roads too dangerous to drive, said Ross Tyler, county engineer.
“If slush is an issue, we’ll have them out at 5:30 in the morning, and I’ll have them do everything they can in about four hours,” Tyler said.
Progress in Sequim
In Sequim, city road crews had plowed all 54 miles of streets in Sequim at least once by Wednesday, and progress was being made on clearing much of more than a foot of snow that covered thoroughfares and sidewalks Monday.
“We had hit them all before yesterday evening,” Paul Haines, city Public Works director, said Wednesday.
A crew of 12, led by two sand trucks with snow plows and a road de-icer truck, has worked in shifts around the clock since the Monday snows, emphasizing the main thoroughfares of Washington Street, Sequim Avenue, River Road and Third, Fifth and Seventh avenues, Haines said.
Those streets were mostly cleared and passable, but some compacted snow and ice remained Wednesday afternoon.
Public buses
Clallam Transit was back to business as usual Wednesday with only the 52 Diamond Point stop not running because the bus couldn’t reach the beach, Terry Weed, Transit’s general manager, said.
“All other routes are relatively on time and running as usual,” he said.
Paratransit routes were on a “curb-to-curb” basis because not all doors could be reached, Weed said.
Clallam Transit will not run today or Friday because of the holiday. Buses will be back on regular schedules Saturday, Weed said.
Jefferson Transit buses were running a couple minutes behind but were on route and on schedule for the most part, dispatchers said.
Jefferson Transit is closed today, but buses will run on their regular schedules starting Friday.
The main arterials throughout Jefferson County were clear, Sheriff Tony Hernandez said.
Port Angeles and Cape Flattery school districts, which had planned to be open Wednesday, canceled classes after a dusting of snow in the morning.
Last district open
Crescent School District was the lone district on the Peninsula remaining open on the day before Thanksgiving.
Attendance was a little light, Superintendent Tom Anderson said.
“We were running short in all the classes,” he said.
“A number of the parents chose to keep their kids home, I guess, because maybe it was difficult for them to get out of their driveways and down to the bus stops.”
Classes in all districts will resume Monday after the Thanksgiving break.
