Snowmageddon Commute This Week

The crazy weather conditions in western Washington made for some crazy driving conditions the last couple days. Fortunately there were not a lot of folks out trying to get around so it was not as bad as it could have been. Some video showing how bad the roads were:

2012 Snowstorm Hits Snohomish County

This week has been a total weather mess in Western Washington. It started for us in Snohomish County on Monday morning, light snow accumulated quickly to a few inches. It got worse each day, by Wednesday I had over 10" of snow at my house. The driving conditions in rural Snhomish County were terrible, with compact snow and ice making for difficult commutes.

On Tuesday I drove around and got a few decent photos of the snow around Eastern Snohomish County- here are some of my favorites (click for larger size):

Marysville Police Pursuit Results in Officer Trapped Upside Down in Patrol Car

Audio from a pursuit that took place early this morning, beginning in Marysville with a suspect attempting to hit police officers, reaching speeds over 100mph and ending with a Marysville Police Car on it's roof and the officer briefly trapped. This chase involved SCSO, MPD and Granite Falls Police.

Winter finally arrives in Snohomish County

Over the last couple days we have had our first taste of snow in Snohomish County. Saturday it hit pretty fast up in Everett and the Lake Stevens, Snohomish and Monroe areas. I took a drive to see how the conditions were, despite just 3 inches or so it still managed to put lots of cars into ditches and minor collisions. 

I grabbed some video and shots over the past couple days, apparently the worst is coming Tuesday and Wednesday, we'll wait and see.

WA ST DOT Operating Heavy Equipment In Active 70 MPH Traffic Lane Without Barricades

While driving to Spokane Wednesday morning I ran into a rather unusual Washington State DOT operation. It appears they were replacing a damaged concrete barrier on Interstate 90. What made this unusual was the fact that there were no warning signs, the lane was not coned off, and a WSDOT worker was standing with his back to traffic, inches from an active 70MPH lane of traffic. On top of that there was a front loader with his bucket clearly into the lane of active traffic. I had about 2 seconds to react. Had this been two semi trucks next to each other it could have become a horrific accident. 

There were at least 5 WS DOT trucks on the westbound side, with at least a mile of one lane shutdown, on the Eastbound side- NOTHING.

Take a look at the video for yourself- it's pretty bizarre.