Big snowstorm in the Seattle forecast

Update 12:10 p.m. Seattle Schools sending students home early because of the winter weather. Two-hour early dismissal today (after a two-hour late start.) After school activities canceled.

We took a drive around Ballard and Crown Hill. It’s amazing how the weather changes throughout the neighborhood. Snow starts sticking north of 65th and gets whiter the more north you go.

NW Market Street just before noon. Light snow that’s not sticking

Near NW 65th & 8th Ave NW, snowing and a little slush on the road

Sunset Hill Park just before noon. Snowing and sticking.

Sunset Hill at 32nd and about NW 77th

The Crown Hill Safeway parking lot at 11 a.m. Lots of snow and slush.

Updated 10:20 a.m. Wet snow is now falling in Ballard.

Updated 9:55 a.m. Cliff Mass is now saying this storm may not be as big as first predicted. “The latest series of model runs are in and to me they suggest we need to scale snow totals down over Puget Sound to 2-5 inches. In other words, not a record even over the PS area.” You can read more from Mass here.

Updated: 8 a.m.: Kiro7 is reporting that Seattle is in the “snow shadow” of the Olympic Mountains and could see a trace to an inch of snow today. “Tomorrow is going to be the big day around Seattle,” Sam Argier says. He says six to 12 inches could fall in Seattle. Jim Guy of King5 is forecasting about nine inches. According to Argier, a Winter Storm Advisory is in effect through 4 p.m. today. A Winter Storm Warning goes into effect for the lowlands tomorrow.

Updated: 7 a.m. : Seattle Public Utilities says garbage, recycling and food/yard waste collection is normal today, although collections may be restricted in hilly areas. Customers who were missed yesterday should set out their materials today for pickup. If your material is not picked up today, set it out on your next regularly scheduled pickup day.

Updated 6:20 a.m.: The roads in Ballard and Crown Hill are bare and wet. Light rain started falling just after 6 a.m. A spokesman for the Department of Transportation tells KIRO-FM listeners that just because your commute doesn’t start out bad, doesn’t mean it will end that way. Be prepared for snowy conditions.

Updated: 7:40 p.m. Seattle Public Schools will open two hours late on Tuesday because of a winter weather advisory issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). All pre-school activities, including preschool and Head Start are cancelled. Buses will be operating on snow routes, which means that yellow buses only run on roads maintained by the City that receive snow removal. Transportation information can be found here.

Updated: 7:40 p.m. King County Metro has announced that they will be on snow routing tomorrow. Check their website here for updates and their Snow, Ice and Flood page here.

The National Weather Service is calling for a historic snowstorm to move through on Tuesday and Wednesday. “Snowfall amounts at Seatac could exceed anything seen since November 1985, a top five record 24-hour snowfall amount,” writes the NWS on this forecast discussion. How much? Anything from 6 to 14 inches in the immediate Seattle area.

Highway 518 near Sea-Tac airport on Sunday afternoon

With Sunday’s storm, Ballard was largely spared while some South Seattle communities (above) and Capitol Hill were blanketed in snow. But this time around, forecasters say the entire region will see significant snow. “The huge event begins late Tuesday night and continues over most of the area Wednesday,” states the NWS. The forecast calls for rain either late Wednesday night or early Thursday morning.

At Fred Meyer tonight, there was little sign of anyone stocking up for the storm, although quantities of snow shovels and de-icing salt are going fast and running low. An employee told us that once they’re gone, it will be several days before they’ll be able to stock up with more.

Here are a few useful resources:

SDOT has this Winter Weather Response map:

During a winter storm, SDOT sends out a fleet of vehicles equipped with GPS tracking systems. Some vehicles have a plow blade; others have de-icing or spreader equipment. The map layers show the recent path of vehicles that have been dispatched to respond to the winter weather event, by time frame and type of equipment.