Snowpocalypse

Residents of the Palouse were bracing for an epic blizzard expected to sweep the region Wednesday and Thursday.

National Weather Service officials issued a two-day winter storm warning for the Palouse to cover Wednesday and Thursday. They were predicting 12 inches of snow Wednesday, with an additional six inches Thursday.

Snow began falling Monday, but the front of the big storm hit Tuesday night.

David Jones, conservationist with the Natural Resources Conservation District in Colfax, said he measured three inches of new snow Wednesday morning, on top of the three inches from the previous storm.

Gazette weather watcher Nancy Taylor at LaCrosse said “a bunch” of snow had fallen out west Tuesday night. She declined, however, urgent Gazette requests to venture into the heart of the storm for an official measurement.

Snow Tuesday night and Wednesday morning prompted schools at LaCrosse, Endicott, St. John, Colton, and Garfield/Palouse and Pullman to close Wednesday.

Tekoa, Oakesdale and Garfield/Palouse released students early Tuesday. Tekoa/Oakesdale cancelled a basketball game against Potlatch Tuesday night.

As of press time Wednesday morning, Colfax schools delayed the start of classes two hours.

Phil Meyer, maintenance operations manager for Whitman County’s road department, said he had 35 workers out clearing roads Wednesday morning.

County plows were called out to a few scenes Tuesday night into Wednesday morning, said Meyer, to clear paths to vehicles that had slid off the road.

Meyer said conditions were heavy around Colfax and southern parts of the county. To the north, he said, the storm had taken a lighter toll.

Officials with the Washington Department of Transportation said they were deploying 1,250 maintenance workers across the state to keep roads clear around the clock.

John Livingston, chief meteorologist for the NWS in Spokane, said moisture from Hawaii is clashing with a pocket of cold air from the north to create the storm.

Snow was expected to switch to daytime rain Friday, with a wintry mix of snow and rain overnight.

The Palouse storm is part of an overall blitz expected to hit the state. Seattle officials were preparing for as much as 10 inches in the normally snow-less city Wednesday.