Olympia's sleepover party, SPD crackin' down (again), and avalanches over the pass. Just a preview of more news to come for your Thursday. more ›

• The winds, they are coming! West Seattle Blog has our area's official wind advisory re-published on their site, and the advisory includes a mention of possible local power outages.Time to charge up your computer batteries and boil a few eggs to last you for the duration.
• Pedestrians and cyclists, remember to wear bright-colored clothing or reflective gear when you're trekking through the dark and rainy city. And drivers, you're in charge of heavy machines barreling at potentially dangerous speeds, so watch where you're going. A woman was hit by a car last night at 23rd & Cherry and a cyclist was the victim of a hit-and-run by someone driving a blue Olds Cutlass or Chevy, reports Central District News.
• The Sable Verity goes into detail in her analysis of the final school closure list released yesterday. While she's upset about some of the closures, there's no love lost on the African American Academy: "I say tread lightly and don't wear yourself out for a lost cause."

Via WSDOT's Twitter, we hear that a winter storm watch predicts two feet of new snow for the Cascades by tomorrow evening. Not coincidentally, Stevens Pass will be closed for 20 minutes Wednesday "sometime between 8 a.m. and noon"--sounds like they're sending Comcast out--for avalanche preparedness work. It's always good to be prepared for avalanches, because otherwise people die. Alpental is reporting a 74-inch base up top--that's crazy. Two weeks ago they didn't have a base. more ›

All southbound lanes of Interstate 5 through downtown Seattle were closed earlier this afternoon while the State Patrol investigated an accident involving a tractor-trailer and several other vehicles at 1:54 p.m near the Mercer Street exit. more ›

Photo by Mike Siegel from the Seattle Times more ›

A day wasted, spent refreshing the same web page over and over. At least we weren't sitting in a big rig stuck up there waiting for the pass to re-open. That must be miserable. And they're still there. In fact, they might be spending the night:

Update I-90 Snoqualmie Pass remains closed until avalanche control work is complete. WSDOT crews continue working through heavy snow to make I-90 safe for travel. Best case scenario: If the snow lets up considerably, we will be able to clear all of the main avalanche areas and have I-90 open late tonight. Worst case scenario: If the snow falls as forecasters predict (20 inches in the next 24 hours), avalanche control efforts will delay the opening until sometime Wednesday morning.

Last night while having dinner at Friend A's house, the wife got a call from Friend B with whom she and A had gone snowshoeing on Friday. Friend B was calling because she had read the newspaper and discovered a story about an avalanche that happened on the trail they took.

A group of youths aged 12 to 16 and an adult were hiking near Lake 22, a popular trail off the Mountain Loop Highway east of Granite Falls, when the avalanche hit Friday afternoon, said spokeswoman Rebecca Hover with the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office.

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SEATTLEST BOOK CLUB PICK: For March, we're reading Jonathan Raban's Surveillance, set in a not-so-distant future, when everyone's actions are highly monitored. Get a head start on the conversation by hearing from Raban himself. (We'll know if you went or not.) more ›