Seattle Department of Transportation officials spread salt on roads last night as snow started to accumulate throughout the city, even as meteorologists forecast warmer temperatures and rain overnight. This morning, salted or not, Seattle roads are mostly clear, and slushy at worst.
Road salt in this kind of weather is a waste of money and salt; there’s not much chance of anything icing up when the temperature is above freezing. But you know, this is what the Times and many other media outlets demanded, and this is what we got.
It’s not very common here (nor probably anywhere else) for it to start snowing like hell at 4:00 in the afternoon, accumulate 3 or 4 inches by 9:00, then warm up five degrees in the wee hours and be pouring rain by dawn’s early light. No doubt the decision had to be made some time Sunday afternoon to call people in, load the trucks and get out there to do anything, and in view of the last few weeks, I don’t have a lot of trouble with the officials erring a bit on the side of caution.
@1…AF…
Amen.
The Piper
Snowing like hell? Really? That’s your definition of snowing like hell?
The temperature never even dropped below freezing.
The warming trend was already predicted, so I was surprised they would pull the trigger on this little snowstorm. We did, however, get a bit more than 2 inches in about four hours of snowing in Everett.
But it’s basic politics – George H.W. Bush lost to Clinton in part because he didn’t manage the aftermath of the hurricane which hit Homestead, FL well, and a Chicago mayor lost office due to a big snowstorm there a couple of decades ago. Sometimes to stay in office you have to do what you have to do.
Appeasement? Are you talking about washington state boxing up illegal immigrants in jail and deporting them?
Of course we know what the phrase illegal immigrants means, brown people from south of the US border.
How effing racist.
Not very common or not, it’s exactly what the forecast called for. Of course, double Doppler & satellite tracking are mere scientific tools. Editorial sniveling & mass whining are far more reliable predictors of future events. It’s lower than appeasement though….call it expensive groveling.
ArtFart @1,
It’s not the norm for temperatures to rise overnight… you know, unless a warmer air mass is moving in… which was exactly what was happening. It was 40 degrees along the coast by 10PM when it was hovering around 33 in Seattle. It’s 40 degrees in Seattle right now, just as predicted.
As far as “expensive groveling” goes, it’s pretty small change. After all, we’ve got the President desperately throwing hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer money at Wall Street, the big banks, and now at the Big Three (okay, “little three”) U.S. car manufacturers in order to try to stem the tide of consequences for his bad policies over the past eight years.
A little salt on the Seattle roads every once in a while is absolutely nothing in comparison.
By the way, speaking of George H.W. Bush, he was touting his youngest son, Neil Bush, as being a great President someday – although he admitted “… right now is probably a bad time, because we’ve had enough Bushes in there….
Source: Former President Bush touts son Jeb for top job
It may not be fair to Neil Bush that he should have to wear his brother’s legacy around his neck like an albatros, but I find it hard to imagine anybody electing yet another Bush to the White House as long as the current President is remembered.
@5: Congratulations. A truly inchoherent post, even for H’sA.
@3
Low 30, high 38.
http://www.weather.com/weather.....undeclared
9 rhp
He was talking about JEB.
re: salt
GIGO
7 Huh? Gee whiz, Goldy…if there are still people who question your credentials as a journalist, you’re not going to get many points trying to pass yourself off as a meteorologist.
7/14 OK….maybe my last comment was a trifle harsh. Perhaps there wasn’t as much snow down in your end of town. In the north end, we had nearly 4 inches on the pavement by 8:00 PM, and the intersection of 65th NE and NE 25th Ave. was block by group of imprudent motorists who did some collective trading of paint.
If the city had done nothing, and the warm air mass had taken a few hours longer to move in, no doubt we’d all be cursing Nickels’ ancestry and personal hygiene over the likely result.
DaddyLove @ 12: Yep, you are right. My bad. Neil was somebody else, I don’t know why I pulled that name out of my memory.
Last night my son did a little slip and slide home on his way from work, but emerged unscathed. We both commented on being surprised by the snow, but we hadn’t been paying any attention to the weather forcast for a couple of days, so we didn’t know if it had been predicted or not.
My son pointed out, however: “No weatherman in Seattle ever lost his job by predicting rain”.
Practicing meteorology from the “Weather Lanai” is dubious at best.
Precipitation and temperature are a highly localized weather phenomena. So light accumulations in one neighborhood do preclude heavy accumulations just down the road. And “warm air masses” frequently stall over water before moving ashore, making the timing of any event dependent upon them very tricky.
Many parts of Seattle experienced accumulations of over four inches with compaction and ice formation on the arterials over night. I passed no fewer than three Metro coaches stalled awaiting chains/rescue on my way home just after midnight. Had the “Pineapple Express” warm air mass stalled offshore for even a few hours many city arterials and bus routes might have been very much in need of sand and salt by the Monday morning commute.
(edit above)
…light accumulations in one neighborhood do not preclude heavy accumulations just down the road.
“But you know, this is what the Times and many other media outlets demanded, and this is what we got.”
Actually it’s what the voters in Seattle got…They have a fool of a Mayor who governs by current public sentiment, rather than good old common sense and values. He’s like a kid, trying to suck up to his teacher or parents…
” I know, I’ll NOT use salt on roads and say that it’s part of my GREEN plan, how we are helping the environment…” accept that it’s exactly not what common sense would mandate and the people of Seattle let him have it…
So in summary, Yes, put out the salt. Heck yeah.
better safe than sorry…And that’s one of the primary roles of government, safety…..
So where’s shallow and insipid Pudz and the vapid Cynical? I was hoping they’d be here today telling us some more about how they and the Republicans are real Christians whereas Democrats aren’t. I really get a kick out of how they present their holier-than-thou faith to us like it was some cheap, Made-in-China flag pin.
@5 A wingnut complaining about illegal immigrants is like Ted Bundy complaining about other people’s double-parking.
@21 I can’t speak for putz but Cynical is busy in the goat shed.
Nickels said the city would use salt under certain circumstances. I’m not sure how last night’s dusting of snow qualified for salt. Here’s what he said when he announced a few days ago that they city would use salt in future snow storms…
“….. he is ordering the city’s Department of Transportation to start using salt if more than 4 inches of snow or ice is predicted, or if extremely cold conditions are expected to last more than three days.
Salt also will be used on hills, arterials, on streets around hospitals and emergency facilities, and on bus snow routes.”
So how did this very light dusting of snow fit those very specific guidelines?
You should have been driving last night. Near white out conditions, wipers clogged with snow and the traction control on almost as much as off.
I-5 at Boeing Field was doing 30.
Steve @ 21
Check out Marvelous Marvin’s comment @ 5 about the new state undocumented policy. Pooper was in such ecstasy about that policy he actually called Chris Gregoire “Governor”.
It’s fun when wingnuts can’t coordinate the scripts they’re handed.
Moron@21: The thread is about snow. I realize the snow blinds your little mind.
We got 2 inches and it hadn’t melted by morning when I left for work. Other buds had 5 inches.
Well Seattle, y’all voted for Greg I Don’t Give A Nickels, so now you reap the whirlwind…
HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR
yelling loser boy@26, being a jackASS again…
It means we don’t all march lock step to a jackbooted goosetepping leader like y’all do!
Subject: Seattle’s big snow poem..
‘Twas the night before Christmas, and next to the Sound
The streets were still frozen, with snow on the ground
The Greyhounds quit running, no matter what fare
And the garbage men said they couldn’t be there;
The children were driving Queen Anne in their sleds
While roofs were collapsing on old people’s heads
And mamma in her boots and I in my cap,
Were stuck in the snow it was such a trap,
When at the Home Depot there arose such a clatter,
I left my car there to see what was the matter.
A group of sad souls was waving their cash
They couldn’t buy shovels they were gone in a flash.
The tires were spinning and just couldn’t go
And chains lay broken in old dirty snow
Then what did my eyes look over and see?
Eight representatives of WDOT
With a politician so lively and quick
I knew in a moment it was Mayor Nick.
More rapid than gun bans his excuses came,
To save our environment the roads stay the same,
On Broadway! On Boren! On Yesler and Denny!
To clear off these roads would cost such a penny!
Sliding down Thomas and over the wall!
The busses hung over and ready to fall!
He still insisted it wasn’t his fault
As the world’s greenest mayor he couldn’t use salt
So snowy Seattle continued to stew
And Mayor St. Nick did not have a clue.
Then later that morning, I heard on the set
That people got sick while de-icing a jet
And that others couldn’t get on the ferry
And the city had decided to close down Cherry.
And an accident closed the I-90 bridge,
And that people couldn’t drive up on Phinney Ridge.
That shovels, and salt had just flown off the shelf,
And I laughed when I heard it in spite of myself;
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
He tried to convey we had nothing to dread;
He spoke many words, but did little work,
I knew that I never would vote for this jerk.
And thumbing his nose at his citizens’ woes,
He arrogantly walked on the path that he chose.
He went to his limo and refused to yield,
And left to get solar panels placed on Qwest Field.
But I heard him exclaim, as he skidded past me,
“Happy Christmas to all, and I’d give it a “B”.”
Idiot @ 5
If you don’t like the undocumented trial balloon that Gregoire’s floated talk to Arizona where the same policy is actually in EFFECT.
Last time I looked there’s still a lot of Republican red in that state. Hint: it went for McSame.
Naaaah.. It means you wingnuts are too stupid to get your right wing bullshit right.
It just shows how badly we whipped your silly asses.
29 – You must be the moron from Yelm who penned that crap. I heard it read on the Weissbach show.
Or maybe you just copied and pasted.
Either way it’s typical WA state right wing bullshit.