Mild Winter? Freak Frost Topples Power Poles Near Hanford
We've had several winter weather advisories this week and I can't tell you how many jokes I've heard about that as friends and coworkers look out the window and see warm breezes and light drizzles.
BUT! It's not been mild everywhere. Pendleton has seen heavy fog and Grant County and Yakima County have seen icy roads.
In fact, in one corner of the Mid Columbia the winter weather has been so severe it toppled 18 power poles!!!!!
On the Hanford Nuclear Reservation on the Prosser side of Rattlesnake Mountain (near Crooks Road) hoar frost was so thick, so heavy it snapped a wood power pole!
The weight of that pole falling combined with the frost all along that line of wire, caused 17 more poles to topple like dominoes wiping out power to much of Prosser!
Experts say the heightened elevation near Rattlesnake gives it a different -- and colder-- weather pattern than the rest of Tri-Cities.
So if are traveling this weekend, use extreme caution. It may feel like October in YOUR driveway, but it's freezing in some parts of the Mid Columbia.