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DECEMBER 31, 2025
“Welcome, Ski Season!” Snoqualmie Pass Springs to Life After Surprise Snowfall Staff Report
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inter arrived almost overnight in the Cascades this week, breathing new life into Snoqualmie Pass and delivering a long-awaited start to ski season after one of the most unpredictable early winters in recent memory. Following weeks of rain, warm temperatures, and storm related closures, a surprise snowfall blanketed the mountains and dropped temperatures enough to finally stabilize conditions. Interstate 90 reopened after crews cleared snow and addressed lingering impacts from flooding and landslides, restoring a vital east west travel
corridor and reopening access to one of the region’s most popular winter recreation areas. For many Seattle area skiers and snowboarders, the sudden change felt almost surreal. Just days earlier, rain had washed away snowpack and kept lifts idle. The fresh snowfall quickly transformed the landscape, turning brown slopes white and signaling that winter was ready to make a proper debut. Washington State Department of Transportation crews worked extended hours to plow lanes, monitor avalanche conditions, and stabilize slopes that had been weakened during recent storms. Officials cautioned that while the pass is open, winter travel conditions can change quickly and drivers should continue to check forecasts and road reports before heading into the mountains. At the ski areas along Snoqualmie Pass, crews moved quickly to take advantage of the new conditions. Groomers were deployed, lifts prepared for operation, and snowmaking systems were brought back online where temperatures allowed. While only limited terrain is open for now, resort officials say the snowfall provided a critical base that sets the stage for further openings as winter progresses. The delayed start has been frustrating for both recreationists and mountain communities that rely on winter tourism. Traditionally, early December marks a dependable start to the season at Snoqualmie Pass. In recent years, however, warmer temperatures and heavier rain events have become more common, compressing ski seasons and forcing operators to adapt on the fly. This year’s early winter has been particularly challenging.
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VOL. 106, NO. 53
Flooding Compounds Seasonal Blood Donation Challenges Across Washington
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ecember is already one of the most challenging months of the year for maintaining a stable blood supply, and this winter’s severe weather has made the situation even more difficult. According to Bloodworks Northwest, widespread flooding across the region has significantly disrupted blood donation efforts at a time when supplies are typically stretched thin due to the holidays. Bloodworks Northwest supplies blood to more than 90 hospitals across Washington and northern Oregon, including medical centers serving Seattle, Queen Anne, Magnolia, and the greater Puget Sound region. While much of the recent flooding has occurred south of Seattle, the impact is regional, affecting hospitals and patients throughout Western Washington.
The organization says historic flooding tied to an ongoing atmospheric river has forced more than 430 cancellations of potential blood donations since December 11. Those cancellations include the evacuation of Bloodworks Northwest’s Renton Lab and Renton Donor Center following a breach of the Green River levee earlier this week. The evacuation alone resulted
in the loss of dozens of scheduled donations, further straining an already tight system. “These cancellations have created a severe shortfall, especially of Type O negative blood, which is at emergency low levels,” Bloodworks Northwest said in a statement. “This comes at a critical time when donations decline in the busy holiday season, and the blood shortage intensifies.”
WHY DECEMBER IS ALREADY A DIFFICULT MONTH Even in a typical year, December presents unique challenges for blood collection. Donation rates tend to drop as people travel, attend holiday gatherings, or become ill with seasonal viruses. Mobile blood drives hosted at schools, offices, and community spaces are often paused during winter breaks, reducing the number of opportunities to donate. At the same time, hospital demand does not slow down. Blood is needed every day for trauma patients, people undergoing cancer treatment, premature babies, and individuals facing complications during surgery or childbirth. Blood cannot be manufactured, and its limited shelf life means supplies must be constantly replenished.
BLOOD DONATION, 3
Lessons from 2025
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s we roll into 2026, it’s a good time to reflect on what to take with us and what to let go. For instance, I am slowly learning my lesson about collector-itis. My typical
Erica Browne Grivas Get Growing response is “Another color of abutilon/daffodil/tomato/ dahlia/zinnia? Yes please!” Buying one of everything makes you feel like a kid in a candy store. It’s fun but has drawbacks as a design style. Might it not be better to learn how to really grow one or two types of something well, than to try to grow them all? I may never discover the answer to that, but I suspect, yes. While the garden seems like an all-you-can-eat buffet when you’re in the haze of buying seeds or plants – particularly online – its space and sunlight are finite, as are your time and energy. Those 12 dahlias you PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
SEATTLE, WA PERMIT 1271
swore would fit grow four feet each in months. Yet occasionally, there are times when you can sense progress. This fall, when it was time to refresh my window box, I was very proud of myself. I chose a white, yellow, and silver palette – not thrilling or sophisticated, but one that will go with my front door – and stuck to it. I included heuchera and carex for evergreen interest spiced up with annual violas and pansies. Then I added repeats of the same plant at the nursery for cohesion. In the process I had to ignore the black or velvet red violas, hot pink cyclamen, red chrysanthemum and purple cabbages. In fact, when I realized the Carex testacea I bought really wasn’t working with the rosy-red bricks, I used Carex ‘Evergold’ instead. (I planted the C. Testacea in containers off to the side.) The silver comes from Dusty Miller and an ornamental cabbage and is repeated as veining in the green leaves of Heuchera ‘Paris,’ whose rosy flowers will echo the bricks come summer. That’s the plan, anyway. When it was time to add some spring bulbs, I checked they were perennial and in the palette. I divided a zombie primrose that had lived a whole year and was still blooming, as well as a perennial Gillia capitata, a wildflower that forms a tiny mat of evergreen foliage, topped with
teeny blue ball-shaped flowers in spring. Both were spread into the window boxes for greater repetition. Sometimes – if you’re lucky–you can make spontaneous purchases look planned. Along with the ones mentioned above, Echinacea is another family I happily collect and added at least two more this year. Because I had bought some new containers there was room for them. I tucked Echinacea ‘Kismet Orange’ in the pot alongside another impulse purchase, Carex tussock sedge, which will have a lovely pink toned flower. When its listed out like this it really seems excessive. We love a happy discovery. This year they came in the form of specialty annuals. I grew some myself, through winter sowing (milk jugs/plastic tubs outdoors) and seed snails. Then I bought a few at Sky Nursery which carries Langley Annuals from Vashon Island and snagged some at the debut Slow Flowers/ Growers Market Sale in May where flower farmers sold
starts of their favorite cut flower annuals. Here are the standouts I’d grow again – and the one I wouldn’t: Didiscus (Blue lace flower) - Trachymene coerulea, which looks like Queen Anne’s Lace was painted hydrangea blue. It’s a great cut flower, repeated bloom several times when cut, and is a great contender for winter sowing. It likes to be sown 4-6 weeks before last frost. Echibeckia ‘Summerina Glow Sugar Shake’- this is the fluffy-headed perennial lovechild cross of rudbeckia and echinacea that only reaches 18 inches high. It lasted over seven days in the vase with melon, chartreuse and bronzyred flowers. Happy in containers, I look forward to seeing it again next year. Feverfew ‘Magic Lime’ – another winter sowing success, this was late to bloom (August) but bowled me over with its go-with everything chartreuse flowers.
LESSONS, 3