|UPDATE|
Interstate 90 has reopened. According to the Washington State Department of Transportation, “chains are required for all vehicles except all-wheel drive, oversize vehicles prohibited: Eastbound from milepost 47, five miles west of the summit near Denny Creek; Westbound from milepost 56, four miles east of the summit near Gold Creek. Travelers will experience added travel time and delays due to adverse weather conditions.”
|PREVIOUS STORY|
SEATTLE — Another blast of snow halted travel on a large portion of the main east-west highway across Washington state Dec. 30 and also snarled traffic in the Seattle and Portland, Oregon, metro areas.
Authorities closed about 80 miles of Interstate 90 over the Cascade Mountains “due to near zero visibility and adverse road conditions.” There was no immediate estimate as to when the interstate would reopen.
A storm that moved in overnight on Dec. 30 dumped up to 3 inches in parts of Seattle and even more outside the city. Snoqualmie Pass east of Seattle, which is what I-90 runs over, saw more than 9 inches of new snow, according to the state transportation department,
In the Portland area and southwest Washington state, up to 4 inches of new snow was possible.
Temperatures in western Washington and Oregon were hovering around the freezing mark, considerably warmer than the past several days when the mercury hit the single digits in some areas after extreme cold air from Canada’s Fraser River Valley.
Airflow from the Pacific will blow in on the weekend and cause temperatures to rise to more seasonable highs in the 40s Fahrenheit.
In Southern California, drenching rains fell and snow brought traffic to a halt on a major highway early Dec. 30 as the last in a series of December storms that walloped the state moved through.
The Grapevine section of Interstate 5 high in the mountains north of Los Angeles was shut down due to snow and ice before dawn, the California Highway Patrol said.
The storm brought widespread worries about flooding and debris flows from wildfire burn scars in the region.
Northern California was finally mostly free of storm warnings, but chains were required on major highways through the Sierra Nevada due to icy conditions.
The Associated Press is an independent global news organization dedicated to factual reporting. Founded in 1846, AP today remains the most trusted source of fast, accurate, unbiased news in all formats and the essential provider of the technology and services vital to the news business. The Trucker Media Group is subscriber of The Associated Press has been granted the license to use this content on TheTrucker.com and The Trucker newspaper in accordance with its Content License Agreement with The Associated Press.
