Winter Storm Ryan Dumps Heavy Snow on the Northwest: Butte, Montana, Schools to Close for First Time in Two Decades

The Weather Channel

Winter Storm Ryan brought more snow to the Pacific Northwest on Monday, causing slippery driving, school closings and thousands of power outages.

The snow fell so hard Monday in parts of Montana that plows had trouble keeping up, according to the Associated Press. With buses struggling to drive on the snowy roads, Butte public schools will have their first closure in at least 20 years on Tuesday, the report added.

Most school districts delayed the start of the school day for an hour or two, but several closed for the entire day. In Eugene, where Ryan dumped at least a foot of snow, the University of Oregon also closed Monday, the Register-Guard reported.

Nearly 68,000 Oregon homes and businesses were without electricity Monday afternoon, according to PowerOutage.us.

The heavy snowfall prompted the City of Eugene to declare a snow emergency, which prohibits residents from parking their cars along designated emergency snow and ice routes.

“We’re working closely with utility companies to get roadways cleared, but really, people should just stay home if they don’t need to travel,” Lane County spokesperson Devon Ashbridge told the Register-Guard. “Even with all of the work that crews are doing, it’s not something we can keep up with to a level that makes it even close to safe traveling conditions.”

Colin Kearney sits on the tree that fell across his car that he had parked on 12th Street in Eugene, Oregon, early Monday, Feb. 25, 2019, after several inches of snow fell in the area.

(Andy Nelson/The Register-Guard via AP)

Elsewhere in Lane County, roads in the town of Oakridge were in such bad shape that the community was cut off with no electricity, Oregon DOT spokesperson Gary Leaming told the Oregonian.

“We are struggling right now to keep highways open,” said Leaming. “We have people without power and without heat. This is a big event.”

An avalanche closed U.S. 20 at Santiam Pass through the Cascade Range early Monday, KATU.com reported. Oregon’s Department of Transportation did not have an estimate of when the pass would reopen. Two small avalanches closed the same stretch of highway on Sunday.

Interstate 5 was closed between Sutherlin, Oregon, and Cottage Grove because of heavy snow. Multiple trees and power lines were down on State Highway 58, closing it from Lowell to Oakridge.

In Portland, snow totals were far more modest, but travel conditions were still treacherous, and crashes were reported Monday.

At the Northwest’s two biggest airports – Portland International and Seattle-Tacoma International – more than 100 combined flights were canceled, according to the flight-tracking website FlightAware.

In Washington, a small plane flipped over and crashed as it tried to take off Monday morning from Bellingham International Airport, KOMO-TV reported.

The Bellingham Fire Department said the plane “blew over” and landed on its top. No one was injured. Winds had gusted up to 39 mph.

Travel conditions were also poor in eastern Washington, where state troopers posted images of vehicles that had gone off the road or crashed because of the conditions.

With feet of snow in the forecast, Ryan’s first impact on California’s Sierra Nevada mountains was gusty winds 100 mph or stronger that overturned trucks and knocked out power on Monday. Authorities worked to keep Interstate 580 open, but several trucks were flipped by the winds south of Reno, forcing temporary closures, according to the AP.

https://weather.com/news/news/2019-02-25-winter-storm-ryan-impacts-pacific-northwest

2 thoughts on “Winter Storm Ryan Dumps Heavy Snow on the Northwest: Butte, Montana, Schools to Close for First Time in Two Decades”

  1. If they’d stop naming storms, credibility could be restored to the weather reporting agencies. As long as they do not account for the massive geo-engineering, they are not telling of the noose around our necks that is tied to a giant boulder that’s been thrown off a cliff!! It is there for all to see, if only we had the eyes to see it.

    Reply

  2. We got close to 8 ins. of snow Sun. night/Mon. morning.

    Not only were the schools closed yesterday, the whole damn town shut down. All 3 places I get wi-fi at were closed, I had to go to a friend’s that has his own… last option.

    Unfortunately, my computer kept freezing up there, it was all I could manage to send in 2 articles.

    Really hate snow.

    Reply

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