Update: Snow in Tri-Cities is sending cars skidding on I-82 and around town

Snow started falling in the Tri-Cities about 2:30 p.m. Monday and was expected to continue into Tuesday morning, according to the National Weather Service.

It was turning the ground white in much of the Mid-Columbia but was not expected to stick around long.

But slick roadways were causing problems for drivers on Interstate 82, south of Kennewick to the Oregon border, and on Highway 240.

Trooper Chris Thorson with the Washington State Patrol said troopers investigated 60 collisions between 2 and 6 p.m. in the Tri-City area.

“The weather and roadway conditions are horrible so if you don’t need to be out driving, please don’t,” he said in a tweet.

Highway 240 between Richland and Kennewick and the blue bridge were particularly choked by slow-moving traffic around rush-hour.

The weather service forecasts less than an inch of snow accumulating, at most between 10 p.m. Monday and 4 a.m. Tuesday.

Weather service models this weekend that showed Arctic air moving down from the north to blast the Tri-Cities have been revised.

Now the cold air is expected to move mostly into Canada, sparing the Tri-Cities from highs as low as the teens that were forecast earlier.

But the weather still will be colder than usual.

Highs Tuesday and Wednesday should be about 28 degrees and Thursday the high may be just below freezing.

The lowest temperature of the week is expected to be 18 degrees Tuesday night.

Normal highs for the Tri-Cities in January average about 41 degrees and lows average about 29.

Travelers heading over the Cascade Mountains from the Tri-Cities should see better driving conditions, after repeated closures of Interstate 90 over the weekend.

More snow is expected on the pass at I-90 this week but most days only 1 to 2 inches are forecast.

This story was originally published January 13, 2020 at 12:49 PM.