White Center Now: The blog about White Center

Thanks to Gill for the view of snow on the green this St. Patrick’s Day morning. Seems we might be in for another round tomorrow morning – the Sunday forecast begins in a similar vein, possible snow showers all the way up till late morning.

No local school changes, or major traffic problems, reported from the snow that fell overnight. As covered on partner site West Seattle Blog, snow fell for more than an hour in the middle of the night, leaving a half-inch or so on the ground in some places, but it didn’t linger long away from yards and cars. The National Weather Service has the area under a “Winter Weather Advisory” till 10 pm, but clear skies are headed this way from the west, and most of the remaining showers seem to be north of Seattle.

(Screengrab of SCL webmap with White Center-and-beyond outages as of 12:30 am, click for “live” version)
12:41 AM: Seattle City Light now has more than 7,000 homes and businesses out of power in parts of White Center, Top Hat, North Burien, and beyond, after hours of gusty wind. Earlier in the night, south West Seattle was hit the hardest by power problems, but those were fixed by 8 pm. Meantime, the National Weather Service’s wind advisory originally was going to expire at midnight, but it’s been extended till 4 am.

2:25 AM UPDATE: Looks like the White Center outage zone has been fixed.

*Metro will remain on snow routing – Friday morning details here

*Seattle Public Schools already have announced they’ll be closed
*Highline Public Schools are closed Friday.
*So is West Seattle Montessori.
*Holy Family closed too.

(White Center snow fun photo courtesy of Gill)
UPDATED THURSDAY MORNING:

Highline Public Schools have now announced they’ll be closed Thursday too.

ADDED 8:07 PM: Holy Family School and West Seattle Montessori are closed too.

ADDED THURSDAY 8:29 AM: White Center Food Bank closed.

Most trash pickups around the region are also canceled for today. And King County government is opening late, 10 am.

ADDED THURSDAY 10:29 AM: Via Facebook, we see the White Center CDA office is closed.

We also have received word that the White Center Kiwanis‘s Key Club dinner tonight is postponed – since the school’s closed! We’ll update the calendar listing with the new date (note – that’s 6:30 pm February 16th).

Any other closures/changes, please let us know – whitecenternow@gmail.com or you can call our 24-hour phone line (at West Seattle Blog HQ), 206-293-6302.

As we continue to wait to see what the weather brings overnight, Highline Public Schools has now announced it’s closed on Wednesday. Holy Family School is, too.

ADDED 12:18 AM: White Center Food Bank also will be closed Wednesday:

In order to ensure the safety of the food bank volunteers and clients, the White Center Food Bank will close Wednesday, January 18 due to forecasted snow. We follow the decisions made by the Highline School district so will remain closed as long as the school district remains closed.

Audrey Zemke
Volunteer and Food Drive Coordinator

ADDED 5:51 AM: The snow arrived a few hours ago, and we have more closures: West Seattle Montessori/West Seattle Academy closed. Kennedy High School (Burien) closed.

ADDED 8:25 AM: No trash pickup today, per Waste Management.

ADDED 9:09 AM: Metro Route 54 is having trouble getting uphill through Fauntleroy and for now is NOT making it all the way to White Center. This could change at any time, if road conditions improve.

11:01 AM: Any White Center restaurants that are open are free to let us know, whitecenternow@gmail.com. So far, we’ve heard from Zippy’s Giant Burgers – open!

1:37 PM: We’re told the 54 is back on its regular SNOW route. Meantime, we’re testing this live list of what’s changed with King County during the storm:

SCHOOLS: Highline Public Schools will open two hours late. From the HPS website:

* Buses will stop at their regular bus stops – two hours later than normal.
* There will be no breakfast, no morning classes for preschool, kindergarten, ECEAP, or PSSC. Afternoon classes for these programs will be on time.
* Schools will dismiss at regular times.

Also, Kennedy High School in Burien is closed.

TRANSIT: Metro remains on snow routes.

More updates to come.

We’re watching the forecast warning of even more snowfall on the way, particularly Tuesday night into Wednesday. In the meantime, with some snow expected overnight tonight, school districts are starting to make their decisions. We haven’t heard from Highline Public Schools yet, but Seattle Public Schools has made its call – 2 hours late tomorrow. We’ll be watching HPS as well as other local schools; if you get word of a school change you don’t see here, please let us know – whitecenternow@gmail.com. Thanks!

(Another photo from Gill – during the snowy afternoon)
A few things you should know about Monday: Metro was already on “reduced weekday service” because of the MLK Day holiday, and now they’re staying on snow routes for the day, too. School, of course, is out for the day. More snow is considered to be likely in the afternoon, and then on Tuesday, but the major concern on Monday morning, for those who do not have the day off, will be icy roads/sidewalks, since the temperature is falling below freezing tonight.

(Thanks to Gill for the snow-on-glass-sphere view!)
Any at your house? The National Weather Service now has the area under a Winter Weather Advisory till 10 pm tonight – see it here, and stay safe! If the snow gets photogenic where you are, we always appreciate photos at whitecenternow@gmail.com.

11:47 AM: We’ve been tracking the suddenly gusty wind for about an hour – and according to the Seattle City Light map, more than 6,000 homes/businesses are now without power in a stretch from south/east White Center into parts of Shorewood and Burien. The National Weather Service has not issued an advisory, though winds in some areas have gusted past 40 mph.

6:04 AM: Holy Family School is closed; Metro has some buses on snow routing (the latest list is here). More info as we get it.

6:44 AM: Kennedy High School in Burien is closed.

8:56 AM: The weather is supposed to improve, though since it’s going to be really cold – teens, potentially – tonight and tomorrow night, the snow that’s here may linger a while.

The Southwest King County Metro routes are now all officially on snow routes – here’s the list and map. Some of those routes go through White Center. More weather-related news as we get it!

Hit “refresh” for the latest image from that “live” traffic camera the county has in White Center. Hope you don’t have to drive anywhere till after daybreak Wednesday, because by all accounts, it’s just plain nasty out there. More than an inch of snow has fallen by late evening around the Seattle metro area, including White Center. But the forecasters insist it will change to rain by morning – the question is, how much of a sloppy, slushy mess will you have to slog through during the am commute? We’ll have updates, including the early-morning word on what local schools plan to do. Also note that as of right now (10:45 pm Tuesday), Metro has all buses on snow routing.

Thanks to WCN contributor Deanie Schwarz for reminding us about this – it’s been in effect since yesterday afternoon but we hadn’t mentioned it yet. A Stage 1 burn ban is in place right now for King County, which means you’re not supposed to use your fireplace or woodstove unless you have no other way to keep warm. It also means no outdoor fires. More information here.

The short burst of hammering rain and roaring wind around 12:30 am was “isolated,” according to the National Weather Service, but it will remain windy at times through the night, with showers until midmorning. The Seattle City Light outage tracker shows some power outages in and around White Center.

Though we haven’t had any new snow in the past 24-plus hours, everyone’s still in snow/ice mode for one more day, because of the way-below-freezing temperatures. Metro’s again on snow routing. Schools are closed (Highline and the private schools we’ve heard from). Stay safe! The weather’s expected to “warm up” – back to the more-normal highs in the 40s – sometime Thanksgiving Day. P.S. If you are in an area served by Seattle trash pickup and have Wednesday collection – it’s postponed again today, as it was on Tuesday; put out double next week for no extra charge.

Highline Public Schools are now CLOSED for Tuesday. Also, Metro will be on snow routes again, but is already warning that they will not be able to run all routes – so if you can possibly stay home, do so.

Even though the roads are bare and dry now, Metro is taking no chances, and it’ll start the day Monday with snow routing in all areas. What happens from there? Depends on what happens with the weather. A chance of snow’s in the forecast, More to come.

Still got power? Thousands of people don’t, in Shorewood, parts of White Center, and Burien – Seattle City Light has more than 17,000 homes and businesses without power around its system, and the map shows one of the biggest outages, more than 4,200 customers, right in this area. You can check its newly upgraded “system tracker” here. As for the weather – the region’s under a Wind Advisory until at least 1 am, and there have been gusts in the 40s in some areas.