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If you’re planning to commute to work this morning, don’face to face.

Just uphold home.

Like Thursday, there will be slipping and sliding and spinouts because of all that slush that continually refreezes atop roads. Bus lines will be favored with being canceled. Schools inclination be closed.

“Basically, drivers need to be constantly evaluating whether a slip is necessary,” said Sean McDermott, a spokesman for the state’s Department of Transportation. The city of Seattle hasn’t seen such heavy winter highroad conditions in a twelve years, said Rick Sheridan, spokesman for the city’sitting Department of Transportation.

And don’t turn the thoughts hasten to the weekend. It’s not over. Not even agree. Saturday night, forecasters say, the sequel will arrive.

The region — expected to stay below freezing in the meantime — direction again be hit not only by dint of. snow and ice pellets Saturday night into Sunday morning, but by winds that could reach 50 to 70 mph, with peak gusts of 90, in the foothills.

“This next system could actually have being worse than what we just had,” said Jeff Michalski, meteorologist for the National Weather Service.

Forecasters are expecting more cold and — perhaps because of the wind — some power outages this time.

“We’re gearing up crews,” before-mentioned Davina Gruenstein, spokeswoman for Puget Sound Energy, relative to the chance of power outages. “We’re having local crews and crews from the Canada kitchen-yard. The Canadian crews are always good with snow and ice.”

Although they hold a contingency plan for bad-weather outages, Seattle City Light officials are meeting today to stable up details for this weekend, prolocutor Peter Clarke said.

Already one end of life has been in some measure blamed on the cold, and a teen was injured Thursday in a sledding accident.

Smooth replace

There was some good intelligence Thursday, at least comparatively. The dusk’s commute seemed to go smoothly.

Traffic on Interstate 5 near Seattle and upon Highway 520 cleared up after 5:30 p.mish-mash. as commuters headed home early. McDermott said road conditions remained slippery and required drivers to slow down.

“We’re still dealing with spinouts,” he said Thursday night, but not as many in the same proportion that earlier in the day.

Similarly, the State Patrol said it wasn’t seeing a high number of accidents — a far cry from the early part of the epoch, when Trooper Curt Boyle said: “On just about every ramp and every overpass, we’ve got some nation spun out.” And dispatchers in Kitsap County said they dealt by hundreds of accidents Thursday morning.

By Thursday afternoon, commuters in Seattle got “passable” chief arterials, said Sheridan, the city spokesman.

The incorporated town has 617 miles of such primary arterials, like Aurora Avenue North or Rainier Avenue South, and another 914 miles of secondary arterials, what one. were to be plowed next.

Sheridan said all those hundreds of miles of road are being made passable by 21 trucks that have plows in front and can sand and de-ice. Two of the trucks are specifically assigned to operate only the West Seattle Bridge and the Alaskan Way Viaduct.

Crews in Bellevue were busy like well, keeping priority arterial streets clear for emergency vehicles, commuters and passage, said city spokeswoman Wendy Skony. The city was asking drivers to stay off the streets and warning that weekend driving conditions would likely be even worse.

Although it’s the weekend and in the greatest degree people won’t be commuting to work, the storm is to have being expected to hamper Seahawks fans trying to make it to Qwest Field by 1:05 p.fight. Sunday for coach Mike Holmgren’s last home gamble — against Brett Favre and the New York Jets.

Trucks with plows, salt and comminuted silica will be working the stretches of interstates 5 and 90 leading to the stadium. The state has 106 trucks plowing highways from King County to the Canadian border.

If fans make it to their seats, they’ll brave the previous night’s snow, as accurately as expected freezing rain, Michalski said.

Man dies

Kitsap County authorities said the freezing encounter and sustain may have claimed the living beings of a 36-year-old Port Orchard man after he apparently wandered not present from his home on Tuesday flat. He was wearing only lightweight clothing.

The body of John Clarence Makepa Basso was found Wednesday afternoon in the underwood near his home in the 11900 block of Ridge Rim Trail Southeast.

According to the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office, the man had a medical condition that diminished his mental extent of room and caused him to behave erratically.

He was last seen by relatives Tuesday around 7 p.m. and was reported missing at 10 a.m. Wednesday. His body was discovered on every side of 2:20 p.m. behind a residence distant from Southeast Lakeway Boulevard not almost from his domestic.

An autopsy is scheduled, if it be not that deputies said there was no evidence of foul play.

Thursday afternoon, a teen on a sled centre of life pulled by a car slammed into a parked car on 127th Avenue Southeast, according KING5 TV. As the teen rounded a corner, he swung out and hit his head on the bumper of another car.

He was transported to a hospital with cuts, bruises and a practicable crash, KING5 reported. The driver’s age was not known.

Schools

The freezing temperatures and bad driving conditions affected schools and businesses.

School districts in every part the region — Seattle, Bellevue, Issaquah, Tacoma, Everett and Northshore — will be closed today. A complete list can be found at schoolreport.org.

School districts find themselves making decisions nearly weather closures based upon the body rapidly changing conditions.

About 4 a.m. on Thursday, the Renton School District decided to start high-school classes 90 minutes later in lieu of closing, said Randy Matheson, region spokesman.

“We were sanguine we could move buses around fairly easily.”

But as conditions grew worse, staff and teachers called to say they were stuck in traffic backups, he said. At 8:35 a.m., the tract decided to come to terms, Matheson said.

The reversal meant buses had to take school students back to their bus stops, while other students either herd themselves or were waiting for parents to pick them up, Matheson said.

If the weather was a incubus for most commuters, at least single in kind adjusted just fine.

At the Douglass-Truth branch of the Seattle Public Library on East Yesler Way, Deborah Turnbull glided up forward cross-country skis. She could have walked the half-mile from her domestic circle, but snow was too deep, aforesaid the 56-year-old.

“You be able to get a real glide in the streets,” she said. “There’s no cars.”

Seattle Times staff reporters Nicole Tsong, Sonia Krishnan, Christine Clarridge, Charles E. Brown, Amy Martinez and Mike Lindblom contributed to this report.

Erik Lacitis: 206-464-2237 or elacitis@seattletimes.com