I-90 Closed for Epic Snowfall!

The snoq telemetry shows 18 inches in the last 24 hrs, not 11. Granted, that's not a huge amount... but the cams look pretty nasty right now, and over a huge section of highway.

Maybe the problem is that they can't afford enough plows to handle unusual situations like today.

Normally, it's only a small section of road near the pass that gets (1) lots of precip, and (2) temps cold enough to have it in the form of snow. So 95% of the time, a couple of plows are sufficient if they keep going back and forth over a couple miles of road. But now, when its snowing heavily on 60 miles of roadway, those same # of plows can't keep up with the snow.

OK there is a HUGE difference between the snow in Washington and the Snow in Colorado. Washington has wet heavy snow and colorado has dry light snow so to compare there average annual snowfall and base the comparision on that is out right ridiculous

Look at the equivalent water for the pass and its a lot for the last 24hrs. Much, much more than Mt Baker and it has more snow inches fallen (21 vs 18). I'd say it must be pretty nasty up there right now and DOT are I suppose within their rights to shut down if there is a threat to life from avalanches, which by the sounds of this morning there was.

Comparing the "average year snowfall" numbers from a relatively neutral source (WSDOT) to those from a ski business (Vail, Loveland) is similarly ridiculous. The ski businesses do everything they possibly can to inflate their numbers, down to things like deliberately putting their gauges in places where the prevailing winds will help matters.

I think it has more to do with the terrain. White Pass and Stevens are rarely closed due to avalanche work, or avalanches that fall on the road.

Sweet, less tracks to deal with tomorrow, even though a ample amount of new snow any way. I always view the pass shutting down as the finest in natural recovery for the lift served terrain, and for the folks that were there today, Right on