The city of Bellingham is taking the 'it's better to be safe than sorry' approach when it comes to preparing for the chance of lowland snow this weekend and into next week.
Bellingham Public Works crews have 2,000 tons of salt, 1,000 tons of sand and 20,000 gallons of de-icer ready to go, even if snow doesn't hit this weekend.
The salters and sanders are loaded, the plows are prepped, all ready to tackle the 310 miles of city streets, should snow start to fall.
"Because it is the first storm of the year I think everyone is really concerned and we try to be over-cautious," said Public Works Maintenance Supervisor Mike Olinger. "It's easier for us to prepare for the storm and not have it arrive than to not be prepared and have it show up."
Some 70 crew members are ready to respond to the hills and valleys of Bellingham. They're not expecting much snow accumulation. Instead, strong winds of up to 60 mph from Canada could blow through, which is not what Olinger wants to see.
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"If the winds are from the southeast, I think we're okay because we've already had some storms, but when it swaps around to the northeast we could be responding to super cold temperatures as well as trees falling down."
Whatcom County officials are more concerned with what could come early next week.
A weather system is expected to bring bitterly cold temperatures, potentially into the teens and low 20s, which could cause streets to freeze over.
"We're expecting Sunday to Monday to be the strong point of the storm," said Olinger. "Get ready. It's coming."
The system moving in next week is almost certain to bring the coldest temperatures western Washington has seen so far this winter. However, it isn't possible to forecast snowfall quantities for next week until we are closer to the events.