Once in a generation snowstorm sweeps through county

BREWSTER – The National Weather Service (NWS) is calling the pre-Christmas snow storm a “once in a generation event” according to bulletins it has been issuing warning travelers of winter weather and wind chill alerts.

The Quad Cities were hit hard with single digit temperatures and wind chill translations into below-zero effects. Bad as that is the storm felt in nearly every state in the lower 48 is particularly harsh in places like Wyoming and Montana with respective wind chills predicted to reach minus 50 degrees (Casper), and minus 45 degrees (Billings).

Last week Okanogan County Emergency Management (OCEM) issued notices on its alert system of hazard conditions on a 7.5 stretch of Highway 97 between Monse and the DeLap Fruit Stand south of Malott (milepost 269-273) where blowing snow created zero visibility driving conditions in places and drifts a danger to drivers.

County snowplows have been challenged on many access roads where blowing and drifting snow reclosed passage shortly after the plow truck broke a path through multi-foot foot drifts. Unsheltered driveways of any length had to be cleared several times to stay ahead of the wicked N-NE winds.

NWS predicted the coldest temperatures between Wednesday, Dec. 21, and Friday, Dec. 23. By this week NWS predictions called for rising temperatures in the 30’s with snow or rain likely.

OCEM posted the following reminders for citizens as temperatures dropped:

    * Run a small amount of water in your faucets to prevent your pipes from freezing.
    * If you must be outdoors, cover exposed skin, and limit your time outside.
    * Protect your outdoor pets and livestock.

    • Be sure to check on family, friends, neighbors and pets.

Is this storm a once in a generation event? Recall the 2020 Cold Spring wildfire in September 2020 that swept the Colville Reservation and continued as the Pearl Hill wildfire in Douglas County. Fires the following year were nearly as devastating.

Or maybe the 2014 Carlton Complex wildfire, then the state’s largest, only to be eclipsed in 2015 by the Okanogan Complex.

If there is a lesson here it is to be prepared, not only firewise but snowwise.