SPOKANE — Spokane’s subzero temperatures are letting up as the region braces for heavy snowfall.
Light snow is expected to begin early Wednesday morning and continue throughout the day, bringing 2 to 3 inches to the Wednesday morning commute and heavier snowfall continuing into Wednesday evening.
Through Thursday morning, “the forecast for Spokane calls for snow amounts roughly in that 8- to 12 -inch range,” said Steve Bodnar, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
Bracing for a winter storm area schools will determine whether to cancel or delay school early Wednesday morning.
Spokane Community College and Spokane Falls Community College will be closed Wednesday “due to predicted hazardous weather conditions.” The same goes for the community colleges’ district offices and Head Start centers.
Spokane Public Schools’ inclement weather team meets at 4:30 a.m. to assess road conditions and the weather forecast.
They aim to inform families by 5:30 a.m., district spokesperson Ryan Lancaster said, and if they haven’t been notified of a cancellation or delay by 6 a.m., families should assume school is continuing as usual.
If district officials cancel school, the district typically uses the first scheduled makeup day to hold a class instead. In Spokane Public Schools, it’s March 15. Other makeup days are scheduled in June.
Central Valley Schools begins its assessment of roads at 3 a.m. with a drive around the district. Families should expect to receive direct notification from the district by phone call, email or text message by 5:15 a.m.
Spokane’s road crews also are gearing up for a snowy night.
“We have all our equipment ready to go,” said Marlene Feist, Spokane’s public works director. That means plows, front-end loaders, graders and deicers, “all in that snow fleet, ready to go.”
“We’ve been making sure that our stockpiles of deicer and sand are available,” Feist said. “We’ve also notified our water and wastewater teams that join us when we have larger plowing efforts that we are expecting to have to have them join us for plowing.”
Normally during winter, snow crews are available 20 hours a day. To account for that gap, the city’s night crew will stay later and the morning crew will come in earlier Tuesday night into Wednesday.
Even with these preparations, Feist said, drivers “should still prepare for a potentially snowy commute tomorrow.”
“If the snow accumulation is very heavy, the streets can fill back up quickly and look like they’ve never been touched, but our teams will be out there in the middle of the night and into the morning,” she said.
City and county crews will prioritize major arterials, hills, hospitals and school and emergency routes.
“When it snows continuously like this, our goal is to keep those major arterials flowing,” Feist said. “As things subside, we’ll move to smaller streets, and ultimately residential streets will get plowed as well.”
There are things community members can do to ease the burden on road crews. A City of Spokane news release encouraged moving vehicles, boats, trailers and basketball hoops off the street if possible to give plows ample space to clear roads for traffic. Residents can plan ahead for a longer morning commute, work from home, avoid high traffic times or take the bus, the release said.
Feist also had a message for those who live near schools, hospitals and community centers.
“Whatever they can do to help get the snow off the sidewalks would be really helpful,” she said. “We know it’s a challenge, but if people can help and pitch in, we can make it safer for our school kids and for the others who are using the sidewalks.”
By Thursday, flurries are expected to subside, with periods of light snowfall on and off through Friday.
By Sunday, temperatures should warm up enough for rain. Between snowy and rainy weather, “Saturday will be the transition period, so be prepared for periods of freezing rain or sleet,” Bodnar said.
Spokane has had about 17 inches of snow this season, still more than 10 inches below normal for this time of year.
The coming snowfall will give a much-needed boost to area mountains, most of which are at 60% to 70% of normal snowfall. Mountains in the Inland Northwest could receive up to 2 feet of snow, while the Cascades are expected to get 3 to 4 feet.
