Heavy snow and blustering wind prompted the closure of Hurricane Ridge Road on Wednesday — and the road may remain closed today.
Olympic National Park officials closed the road at about 9 a.m. because of low visibility, winds gusting higher than 50 mph and a prediction of a foot of snow overnight from the National Weather Service.
The decision about the status of the 17-mile road from Port Angeles to the popular snow-play spot at Hurricane Ridge is made on a daily basis and is dependent on how safely the road can be navigated and cleared, said park spokesman David Reynolds.
The road has been kept open seven days per week — weather permitting — since March and is scheduled to return Sunday to its usual winter schedule of remaining open only Friday through Sunday, except for some holidays.
In past years, the road would have stayed on a restricted schedule until spring, but this year, it will be open seven days a week through the winter, beginning in mid-December, once additional snowplow staff has been trained — again, if the weather permits the road to stay open.
More than $75,000 in donations were raised to make that change possible. The National Park Service will contribute $250,000 to cover the rest of the anticipated cost.
Although snow is piling up in the Olympic Mountains, the first flakes in populated areas of the North Olympic Peninsula will likely be seen Friday, said Johnny Burg, meteorologist for the National Weather Service.
The snow level was expected to drop to about 2,000 feet today, he said.
“It might get close to the surface of the mountains, but we shouldn’t see it in the lowlands quite yet,” he said.
Although Port Angeles and Sequim didn’t have a repetition of Monday’s night’s big blow — which knocked out power to 14,200 electrical customers on the North Olympic Peninsula, 8,200 of them in Clallam County — Wednesday was still a breezy day.
Windy conditions off the coast of Sequim Bay prompted a Coast Guard search for a small boat.
Those aboard were found safe at Cline Spit in the inner Dungeness Bay, said Coast Guard Lt. Neil Penso.
A Coast Guard helicopter, a 45-foot rescue boat and a Coast Guard cutter were sent out from Air Station/Sector Field Office Port Angeles out to search for the boat after another group in a separate boat said they did not see the unidentified pair come ashore.
“The wind was about 30 knots [34 mph] and the conditions didn’t seem good,” he said.
The highest winds in the area Wednesday were on the east side of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, with 60 mph gusts reported at Whidbey Island at about 8 a.m., and gusts of 51 mph recorded in Port Townsend and 55 mph at Point Wilson.
Those were the only areas on the Peninsula that broke into “high wind” conditions, Burg said.
Port Angeles and Sequim had gusts of about 37 mph at about 9:15 a.m., according to the National Weather Service. Sustained winds were not recorded.
Forks experienced sustained winds of about 33 mph and gusts of 44 mph at about 7:40 a.m.
Burg said he didn’t expect windy conditions to continue, but said that temperatures should continue to drop.
Temperatures throughout the Peninsula hovered around the low 40s with lows in the 30s, but by the end of the week, highs are expected to be in the low 30s, dropping to the 20s — providing climate which is appropriate for snow, Burg said.
“Even if it does snow, it won’t be something that sticks around, though,” he said.
“By next Tuesday, we’ll see it getting back to normal.”
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.