Look for some possible snow flurries Friday and then a warming trend this weekend after a week of cold temperatures caused driving difficulties in the South End.
A dusting of snow last Saturday night turned to ice on a number of roadways during the weekend and Monday morning, causing several accidents, but there were no reported injuries.
Numerous spinouts and cars sliding off slick roads were reported.
Lt. Evan Tingstad, of the Island County Sheriff’s Office South Precinct, said seven vehicle accidents related to the weather were called in, two on Saturday and five on Sunday.
Meanwhile, a chance of a little more snow is possible this coming Friday, forecasters say.
Daytime temperatures in the mid-30s and nighttime temperatures in the 20s are expected to continue today and Thursday. Then clouds and a warming trend are forecast for Friday, continuing through the weekend, with rain likely.
On Monday, two county road crews were out at 5 a.m. Some individual sandings also took place Sunday on county roadways, at the request of area residents, said Scott Endres, foreman of the county’s Bayview road shop.
“It was nothing major,” he said, adding that the road department has a sanding plan in place to deal with inclement weather.
Tingstad said the most dramatic vehicle incident occurred Saturday.
A woman was driving her four-door sedan north on Highway 525 about 8:30 p.m. when the vehicle slammed into and damaged a guardrail near Scott Road in Freeland.
Tingstad said a wheel came off the vehicle, but it was uncertain whether that was before or after the car hit the railing. The wheel rolled across the centerline of the highway and was struck by a southbound minivan driven by another woman.
The van ran over the wheel, which damaged the front end of the vehicle and caused two flat tires.
On Sunday, a pickup truck slid off the roadway at Mina Lane and Lake View Way near Lone Lake and down a 40-foot embankment, but no one was reported injured.
Another single-vehicle accident damaged the guardrail of northbound Highway 525 just past Maxwelton Road about 7 p.m. Saturday, Tingstad said.
Deputy Chief Mike Cotton of Island County Fire District 3 said his department was dispatched to only four of the vehicle-accident calls during the weekend.
