See Shocking One-Day Washington Pass Snow Totals from Yesterday

Yesterday, WSDOT crews at Snoqualmie Pass dealt with a late-season storm that dumped some impressive totals in a short amount of time and closed I-90 in both directions.

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Just when it felt like spring might finally be settling in, winter made a pretty dramatic return to the Washington mountain passes, and it didn’t take long to cause problems.

I-90 at Snoqualmie Pass Shut Down After Multiple Crashes from Snow

Snoqualmie picked up about 10 inches of new snow, White Pass saw around 12 inches, and Chinook Pass led the way with a whopping 16 inches.

That’s a lot of snow for mid-April, and it caught plenty of drivers off guard.

The storm moved in on Wednesday, and conditions quickly deteriorated on I-90. Washington State Patrol Troopers and WSDOT pass crews had to shut down the highway in both directions after multiple crashes left vehicles blocked between milepost 47 and Easton.

Pictures from the scene show a pile of semi-trucks that slid into each other coming down the western slope of Snoqualmie Pass. At one point, the entire stretch was closed with no clear reopening time.

Eastbound lanes eventually reopened near the summit, but westbound traffic stayed shut down longer because crews had to clear wrecks and get stranded vehicles out of the way.

The good news is that the worst of the storm has already passed. Forecasts for Snoqualmie show only light additional snowfall today, about 1 to 3 inches, with cooler temperatures through Thursday.

A Good Reminder for Washington “Spring” Drivers

A little extra snow in the area today will keep roads slick, especially overnight when temperatures drop into the 20s.

It is “spring” in Washington State, right? This storm was a wake-up call that winter driving conditions do not always follow the calendar in the Cascades.