There was no snow event in Seattle despite all the tenseness. But we experienced the tenseness. We left Seattle at 4:45pm Wed evening to get past ice while it was still snow. It was snowing, but not much. Then we drove into the storm. Skagit Valley had blizzard like conditions that we drove thru for 2 plus hours.
This was what we experienced in the last rest stop we used. After this it seemed dangerous to get off the interstate for fear of getting stuck in the unused parking areas and off ramps. The snow accumulated that fast.
Quoted from komonews.com
“So when all was said and done, some areas in Skagit County received 12-18″ of snow. In nearby Whatcom County, there was hardly any in Bellingham and a few inches elsewhere. Snohomish County? A decent amount in Marysville but the usual snow belt of Lynnwood to Everett was left blank. Think about that variability. It’s 55 miles between Bellingham and Everett, and you go from 0″ to 12+” to 0″. Where else in the country do you find that kind of variability?”
That is what we drove thru. Wayne kept asking me when it would stop. I had looked at traffic cameras up in Bellingham and Blaine. The roads were either dusted or clear. We knew there was a Promiseland without snow. When I called the Vancouver Four Seasons to let them know we’d be late, their blasé reply was “snow, what snow?”
Notice the snow accumulating on the car and the windshield. We had to crank the heat to uncomfortable levels to keep the snow from icing. The Subaru proved to be our beloved “snow mobile”. Often, we couldn’t see the lines of the road. It was nice to have a lead car ahead of us to mark the way.
The telling sign was the traffic camera on the wsdot site by Mt. Vernon was blocked. The next day, it was obvious it was blocked by snow. That just wasn’t obvious at night.
At one point, outside Burlington, we traveled 10 miles in 30 min. We needed the lights from the other cars to see the road. We barely edged by some stopped cars praying we didn’t get stopped. We had to physically keep driving to keep from being stopped by ice. It got scary when a snow plow was floundered on the side of the road.
My thoughts fled to scary places and I sensed our precariousness. I remembered a family that got stuck in the Oregon mountains off a false turn off I-5 that took the life of the husband. I thought if we got stuck, no one was likely to rescue us since even snowplows couldn’t get around. I thought about how in November a man in Tacoma got killed while walking from his car on 1-5 during Novembers snow storm. I just read an article about a couple stuck in a snowbank for 4 days. Travel places you in unplanned situations. I also thought about the voyaging couples killed by pirates. Obviously, these thoughts were a little wide ranging and not overly logical. But I did have a real sense of fear and danger during this drive. I was thankful for my stalwart, snow driving husband. I was thankful for movies and iPhones that distracted their minds and bladders from our situation. I was thankful for the “Promiseland” in Ferndale where it was only cold. I was thankful we didn’t experience winds and snow.
Now on the other side, I was thankful to arrive.