Let’s remember when one of the worst winter storms in recent memory began, on this day in 2008 (December 17)
By: Chris Burlingame
Tags: Weather, On This Day, Seattle, Greg Nickels

I think this winter storm is etched into my memory and something I don’t think I’ll quite ever forget and feel comfortable in the winter time.

From HistoryLink and John Caldbick:

Despite the warnings of weather mavens, the immediate area around Seattle and central King County was spared on the 17th, protected by the Olympic Mountains from the storm systems barreling in from the west. This was not to last.

West of the Cascades, snow began falling just north of Everett early on December 17, with accumulations of four to 12 inches. A few hours later, just in time for the Wednesday evening commute, heavy snow started falling from south Everett to Shoreline, snarling traffic on I-5 and I-405. A small area northeast of Arlington got hit with an astounding 23 inches, although the town itself got only 4 inches; Darrington got 14 inches and Mount Vernon, 8; Anacortes got 6.5 inches and Bellingham, 5; Port Townsend got 4 inches.

Schools, businesses, and government offices were closed, and on December 17 alone the Washington State Patrol was called to approximately 200 traffic accidents in Eastern Washington. Spokane city bus service and garbage collection were halted and most flights out of the airport were canceled or delayed. Spokane wasn’t alone; nearby areas reported as much a two feet of snow during the same period, with Colfax getting 16 inches, Pullman 12, and Oakesdale more than 24 inches.

Beginning on Wednesday, December 17, 2008, a record snowfall hit Spokane and other areas in Eastern Washington, kicking off what would become nearly two weeks of unusually severe weather and extreme cold temperatures across the state. During a 24-hour period ending at 10:00 a.m. on December 18, the Spokane International Airport saw 19.4 inches of snowfall, shattering the previous 24-hour record of 13 inches set in 1881. And it didn’t stop there. By midnight on the 18th, Spokane had seen its “snowiest day in 127 years.”

On December 17, 2008, record cold temperatures and snowfalls east of the Cascade Mountains kick off what will become nearly two weeks of wild weather that eventually impacts most of the state. Spokane sees record snowfalls, and many areas endure record low temperatures. Seattle gets a rare White Christmas, but the storms bring the city to its knees and perhaps cost Mayor Greg Nickels (b. 1955) his job in the next election.

The story about Mayor Nickels losing his job?

Seattle’s refusal to use salt or other chemicals on its streets and the seemingly selective nature of its snow-clearance efforts were to have political repercussions. At the time, Alex Wiggins, chief of staff for Seattle Department of Transportation head Grace Crunican, tried to explain why very few of the city’s thoroughfares were effectively cleared:

“We’re trying to create a hard-packed surface. It doesn’t look like anything you’d find in Chicago or New York … . If we were using salt, you’d see patches of bare road because salt is very effective. We decided not to utilize salt because it’s not a healthy addition to Puget Sound.”

That may have been one environmental gesture too many for even Seattle’s generally liberal electorate, many of whom right then would have been delighted to have their streets looks like those in Chicago or New York. In the days leading up to Christmas, most main arteries in the city had resembled moonscapes, with small sections of clear pavement girded on all sides by piles of dirty, frozen slush. Driving on them was a bone-shaking, suspension-breaking ordeal. Nonetheless, on Christmas Eve Mayor Greg Nickels (b. 1955) awarded the City a grade of “B” for its snow-clearing efforts. At that point, almost all neighborhood streets on Seattle’s various hills were usable, if at all, only by four-wheel drive vehicles equipped with chains or studded tires.

Among the exceptions was one glaring and politically problematic area of relatively well-plowed streets — a stretch of Admiral Way in West Seattle near where both Nickels and his deputy mayor, Tim Ceis, lived. This, and the fact that Seattle was a transportation hell for well over a week, naturally led to quick hearings by the city council. Before the first week of January they had begun, and soon grew contentious. Transportation director Crunican was one of the first witnesses, and although she defended her department’s efforts, she ultimately conceded that its performance clearing Seattle’s streets was merely “adequate.” Later, after a study of the city’s efforts had been completed, she revised that opinion, saying on February 19, 2009, “We blew it” (The Seattle Times, February 20, 2009).

For Nickels’s political opponents, the great Christmas storm of 2008 was the gift that kept on giving. The controversy lingered for months and months. In June 2009 the City was forced to release records that depicted the Department of Transportation as a rather dysfunctional place. There were complaints of a hostile work environment, and some employees were disciplined for allegedly slacking off or not coming to work during the snow response. Consultants were hired, at a cost of more than $500,000, and several City workers received compensation for their employment complaints.

Nickels, stung by speculation that he and Ceis had received preferential snowplow treatment, also asked the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission to investigate that matter. The commission reported in August 2009 that it had

“found no evidence that Mayor Nickels, members of the Mayor’s senior staff, or cabinet or any other elected officials, misused their official positions to secure special treatment from SDOT during the storm response.”

The ethics panel was less convinced that personnel within the department, albeit without specific requests, had not in fact made sure that the streets near the mayor’s residence were passable. Although no further action was taken, the harm had been done.