Forecasters warn of blizzard in Washington state

[November 23, 2010]  SEATTLE (AP) -- A nasty storm was expected to dump heavy snow Tuesday across Washington while low temperatures chilled parts of Oregon as travelers prepared to drive and fly ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday.

Most of Eastern Washington braced for a rare blizzard, and the National Weather Service posted a winter weather advisory for most of Western Washington and warned of hazardous conditions throughout the rest of the state.

At least three deaths have already been blamed on the storm, including a man struck and killed outside his car Monday night on snowy Interstate 5 in Tacoma. Washington State Patrol Trooper Brandy Kessler said it wasn't clear whether the man was chaining up his car or pushing it when he was hit.

Blowing snow, slick roads and temperatures in the mid-20s turned the Monday evening commute in the Puget Sound region into an hours-long slog -- for those who made it home. Some commuters gave up after more than four hours and returned to their Seattle offices; others reported they were still stuck in traffic more than five hours after leaving work.

Elsewhere in the West, the National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning for Utah, amid forecasts of strong winds, heavy snow and possible whiteout conditions Tuesday night.

Temperatures dipped to freezing in the Portland, Ore., area on Monday as homeless people lined up at emergency warming shelters.

Portland got a dusting of snow Monday evening but the outlook for Tuesday was just chilly -- with a forecast high of 30 degrees, National Weather Service meteorologist Russ Willis said.

Oregon State Police said heavy snow, high winds and limited visibility caused numerous commercial trucks to jackknife Monday in the area around Mount Hood. KGW-TV said sections of Oregon Highway 26 were closed intermittently.

Troopers also reported at least a dozen crashes Monday on Santiam Pass in Oregon's central Cascades.

At Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, a China Airlines Boeing 747 cargo plane landing in snowy conditions Monday afternoon overshot its runway stopping point. No injuries were reported, airport spokeswoman Terri-Ann Betancourt said. The plane overshot the runway's designated stopping point by about 100 feet but still stopped on concrete in the runway's safety area, she said.

The 2 inches of snow that fell by 5 p.m. Monday at the airport was a record for Nov. 22, besting the previous mark of 1.5 inches. Records there have been kept since 1945, said meteorologist Jay Neher.

Sea-Tac Airport was keeping runways and taxiways clear, said spokesman Perry Cooper.

"It's nothing we can't handle," he said. "We've been through this before."

The Washington Department of Transportation said it planned to shift snow-plowing resources from northwest Washington's Whatcom County, which took the early brunt of the icy storm, to Snohomish and King counties -- the greater Seattle area.

Power outages, largely caused by strong winds, were scattered, but still left thousands of customers without electricity on Monday, utility spokesmen said.

Many school districts, including Seattle, announced classes would be canceled Tuesday. The Weather Service in Spokane posted a rare blizzard warning until 10 a.m. Tuesday -- the first such warning the office had issued since it opened in the mid-1990s.

Blowing and drifting snow was been reported across much of Eastern Washington's Columbia Basin, with numerous road closures.

Two people were killed earlier Monday when the car they were in slid on a snowy road at Cowiche near Yakima and collided with another car, the State Patrol said.

Chilly sunshine was forecast Tuesday in Seattle and Wednesday in Spokane, giving a window for holiday travel. But temperatures will stay near or below zero in much of eastern Washington and Spokane, with a chance of more snow on Thanksgiving.

[Associated Press; By GEORGE TIBBITS]

Associated Press photographer Ted Warren in Tacoma and writers Phuong Le and Donna Gordon Blankinship in Seattle and Nicholas K. Geranios in Spokane contributed to this report.

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