Record Snowfall Wallops Washington

2 Highways Across State Closed Due To Falling Snow, Avalanche Threat

(AP)  Falling snow and a high threat of avalanches prompted officials to close three main east-west mountain passes in Washington state on New Year's Day and at least two of the highways were expected to remain shut down into Friday.

Another storm was expected to dump as much as 18 inches of new snow on the Cascade Mountains overnight, keeping avalanche danger high.

While Stevens and White passes were expected to remain closed into Friday, highway crews managed at 8:30 p.m. Thursday to reopen Snoqualmie Pass, which carries Interstate 90 across the Cascades.

Earlier, Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond said officials would assess the pass situation Friday morning and proceed from there.

When all three passes were closed, travelers between Eastern and Western Washington were directed to detour south through Portland, Ore.

Washington has seen at least two weather-related deaths in the past week, while 10 people have been killed in recent British Columbia avalanches.

The next storm is forecast to bring snow and possibly high winds to large areas of winter-weary Eastern Washington from Yakima to Spokane.

In hard-hit Spokane, 2.4 inches of new snow fell Thursday, but more snow was expected in the evening, National Weather Service technician Bob Bonner said.

Spokane finished December with 61.5 inches of snow, far eclipsing the previous one-month record of 56.9 inches set in January 1950. Snowfall records in the area have been kept since 1893. The heavy snow has been blamed for more than a dozen roof collapses, including those at a church, grocery store, health club and building supply company.

An 85-year-old woman who lived about 15 miles southeast of Spokane died last weekend, suffocating when snow apparently fell from her rooftop and buried her as she shoveled her sidewalk, the Spokane County sheriff's office said.

On Wednesday, 24-year-old Megan Kinsella of the Seattle suburb of Redmond was killed after she and a male friend were hit by an ice slide after climbing in the Cascade Mountains near Enumclaw, Pierce County sheriff's Deputy Dan Hudson said. The man was hospitalized with a serious head injury.

The Weather Service also issued a high wind warning for the south Washington coast and south Washington Cascades and foothills through Thursday night.

Meanwhile, up to 7 inches of rain is expected in the mountains in Oregon, threatening to flood rivers already running high from last week's storms. Higher temperatures are also turning more snow into water, the weather service said.

State geologists warned that such conditions could be ripe for landslides.

[carlylaine]

Well, RIGHT NOW in Portland OR we are getting more snow! This GLOBAL WARMING trend is freezing me out!

Meteorologists can''t get the day to day weather right...or the 5-7 day forecast right. How can you moronic-global-warming-freaks take stock in anything these bozos say or write? YEESH!

[carlylaine]

oooOOOO00000 where are we?

[patriot2381]

Global warming is a con, for money and taxes. Some day the green industry will be looking for a bail out.

[ballpen1]

CarlyLaine: It is BECAUSE of the effects of climate change that the weather becomes less predictable. Al Gore made this very clear in his movie. And check out the hurricane seasons of the next years, they will run out of letters of the alphabet AGAIN!

[carlylaine]

Just because everyone else says it''s so doesn''t mean that it is...MTEE. Consensus is NOT NOT NOT scientific fact.

When the meteorlogical association states their mission and if other meterologists-who disagree-are forced to agree in order to keep their jobs...this just blows of HOT AIR from them not global warming.

Many of you don''t think you just jump on a band wagon for control and out of fear. Go ahead and be fearful, but don''t force me to believe your way, which is what is being pushed down our throats on this issue.

[carlylaine]

ballpen1: Sure anything to twist a story....are you serious? Pat answers? are you kidding me? Ignorance.

[janefondu]

where is Gore with his Global Warming. Oooops he''s probably jetting to DC in his carbon emitting jet for the annoited ones inaug.

[tincup356]

Breaking news.....it has been confirmed .....global warming has been traced to the methane gasses coming out of the mouths of politicians worldwide,,,spewing BS.

[au_fait]

Scientists and economists have been offered $10,000 each by a lobby group funded by one of the world''''s largest oil companies to undermine a major climate change report due to be published today.

Letters sent by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), an ExxonMobil-funded thinktank with close links to the Bush administration, offered the payments for articles that emphasise the shortcomings of a report from the UN''''s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Posted by mtee12

so what prrof do you offer on this statement. Please provide a valid link.

[au_fait]

Globally, the trend on the climate has been relatively flat for the last ten years. i will not agree with the harbingers on global warming but I will accept that environmental management is needed, just not to the tune they are singing. I like the idea of population growth. Less people results in less need of our resources. So who is going to explain to parents, no more children?

[Renegade.Rivers]

Global warming is a scam, it always has been, and Al Gore knew it from the start. The weather that has been slapping this country and the world up the side of the head for the last couple of winters has been some of the worst in several generations.

Yet the global warming shrills will not stop singing. They even attempt to claim that colder weather is caused by global warming, like that is a logical premise.

This is all because they and the banking elite that are attempting to take over the world, through hook and crook, do not want to give up the thought of a carbon tax that they can extrapolate from ever man, women and child.

Like any other scam this is about one thing and one thing alone, money. Even the new light bulb scam is no more than said. The light bulbs are dangerous, they in many cases last no longer than a regular bulb, and they are a danger to the environment due to their contents. Yet, they are attempting to make the US and the world accept the.

Its not about the environment, its about greed and control, its about the money stupid.

[petro49l]

Weather disasters take many innocent lives. FEMA should consider the impact of storms on modern society. The Katrina Hurricane killed 1,836 victims. A recent Valentine''s Day (2007) ice storm in PA claimed the lives of nine people. FEMA must plan and prepare for catastrophies when thousands of persons could perish. Supplies and evacuations solve the immediate danger. FEMA''s obligation to the Public requires attention to security and safety for dams, levvees, forests, mountains, and tall buildings.

[au_fait]

jbrown88881, I love the saying the polar bears are dying off. It has been shown that there is a net increase in the numbers of polar bears around the world. If you look to one or two isolated areas the numbers in those areas have declined. the are facts that both sides are going to show to support their cause. So basically there is no feasible way to show who is correct. Just practice reasonable environmental managment. There is nothing wrong with that, but for the the government to mandage strict standards a slipperly slope. I.E.. With the incadescent bulb being banned to reduce electricty requirements, the resulting amount of lead being introduced to our landfills will be a negative impact. Many people are not going to take th time to recycle them to keep the lead out of dumps. The government should stop trying to protect us by scarring us as some people pick up the crusade when they know little about it.

[my2centss]

Global Warming?

[msay3]

Thus, the mainstream media''''s ''''consensus'''' that global warming is a man-made phenomenon is a fraud.

Posted by JT_Lancer at 10:07 AM : Jan 02, 2009
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Of course global warming is a natural phenomena, as it has been going on as part of the earth''s warming and cooling cycle from the beginning; and not just since humans populated this planet....The human element of greenhouse gases, however, have contributed to an accelerated warming. We cannot continuously pour our trash into waterways ,the environment and the atmosphere and expect no consequences from our actions....We may not be in whole responsible for global warning, but we ARE responsible for poisoning our planet.....

[apndrgn]

lead in landfill from lightbulbs and snow in washington. they both look alike, but they are different somehow. different, o yes, i see it all now. it is the intelligent look on the face of the cow.

[rrozsa-2009]

Many of you don''''t think you just jump on a band wagon for control and out of fear. Go ahead and be fearful, but don''''t force me to believe your way, which is what is being pushed down our throats on this issue.


--------------Posted by CarlyLaine at 05:59 AM : Jan 02, 2009
============================================

Thank you, CarlyLain, for your post.

I know I''m not a scientist; therefore I can only research the topic, pro and con, and draw as informed a conclusion as I can. Unfortunately, it is much easier to find information from various reports and findings AGAINST the argument for HGW (Homogenic Global Warming) than "for" it. Those "experts" such as Al Gore don''t offer up any arguments to counter the arguments against it, including those by NASA, which state that the data used in Gore''s film was incorrect. According to them, we are unAmerican if we even request to debate the theory. Plus, if Al Gore really believed that *** he would have made his private residence AT LEAST as "green" as George W. Bush''s, and wouldn''t put his entire entourage into gas-guzzling SUV''s when he arrives at one of his lectures! (Check it out on Snopes -- what I say is true).

Follow the money --Take a look at who (on which side - for or against) gets paid millions to lecture on the subject, and is on the Board Of Directors of the very organization who sells so-called "carbon credits"? Then you''ll figure out whose "data" is the most trustworthy!

[rrozsa-2009]

Sorry, I meant Anthropogenic, not Homogenic, as in ****-Sapiencs.....

[rudy6543]

Global Warming?


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by my2centss at 12:05 PM

I think it''s funny when the Limbaugh followers doubt global warming because some area gets record snowfall. Yes, in my area we have also been getting record snowfall, but does that mean global warming isn''t real? Nope, in fact the warmer temperatures that follow have been causing early melts and warming streams and lakes. The warming has been killing off salmon that migrate up the rivers and streams. Don''t think that just one element proves global warming a fraud. It is very much a problem everywhere.

[rudy6543]

Check it out on Snopes -- what I say is true).

Posted by RRozsa at 01:52 PM

Yeah, check it out at Snopes. They prove everything, don''t they?

[rrozsa-2009]

Nope, in fact the warmer temperatures that follow have been causing early melts and warming streams and lakes. The warming has been killing off salmon that migrate up the rivers and streams. Don''''t think that just one element proves global warming a fraud. It is very much a problem everywhere.

--------------Posted by rudy6543 at 01:56 PM : Jan 02, 2009

============================================

And who is to say which temperature is the "right" one for our planet? Given that our planet has been in an ice age in the past, and has warmed up to inhabitable temperatures in recent millenia, proves our planet is capable of very large temperature ranges, due primarily to the sun and volcanic activity. But at what point is "global warming" a concern? Maybe we need to warm back up to the climate several hundred years ago, when writings indicate that wheat was once grown on the continent of Greenland, which is now MUCH too cold? Perhaps our planet is in the midst of natural patterns of warming and cooling that have been going on for hundreds of millions of years.

[rrozsa-2009]

Yeah, check it out at Snopes. They prove everything, don''''t they?


------------------Posted by rudy6543 at 01:58 PM : Jan 02, 2009

==============================================

I''ve generally found them to be thorough, and have not found them to be biased. If you have data otherwise, please share it.

[rrozsa-2009]

Yeah, check it out at Snopes. They prove everything, don''''''''t they?


------------------Posted by rudy6543 at 01:58 PM : Jan 02, 2009

===================================

And I didn''t mean to imply that they stated any opinion for or against AGW -- they merely confirmed that the story going around the internet that Al Gore''s home is less energy-efficient than GWB''s is true. Sorry if I implied otherwise.

[hetup-2009]

A big snowpack will mean good water for the grapes in the Spring. Wouldn''t knock this weather.