Kids of all ages flake out for day.

Byline: JOE MOSLEY The Register-Guard

It was a long time coming and for some its timing left something to be desired, but the first snow in six years to cover the Willamette Valley floor made children giddy on Monday and caused adults to behave like children.

"My brother woke me up and said, `Caitlin, it's snowing outside,' ' said 12-year-old Caitlin Bartlett, as she stood shivering during a lull in a snowball fight later in the day with her mother, Kirsten, at Spencer Butte Park. "I said, `No, you idiot.' But then I was really happy when I saw it was snowing."

The only thing that could have made it better is if the storm had held off a day - raising the possibility of a canceled school day today rather than an added treat on Monday's Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

But then, why not hope for a repeat this morning?

"Yeah," Caitlin said. "I really hope it snows again."

Which forecasters for the National Weather Service saw as a pretty good possibility.

The snow level was expected to dip to - and occasionally below - 500 feet again this morning, with snow accumulations of an inch or two considered likely across the valley floor. At some locations in the foothills, the depths could be doubled.

Showers were expected to continue tonight and Wednesday morning before the snow level begins to climb Wednesday afternoon.

The downtown Eugene elevation is 422 feet, by the way, although some outlying communities sit a bit higher - Cottage Grove at 650 feet, Lowell at 741 feet and Oakridge at 1,209 feet, for instance.

"Basically, we have a cold trough out of the northeast Pacific," meteorologist Miles Higa said Monday from the National Weather Service office in Portland. "We had been looking at the low snow levels (for Monday night) for at least a couple days," Higa said, but the morning snow "was a little more unexpected."

The message for students and their parents? Call The Register-Guard's GuardLine information service, hop onto the Internet first thing this morning, or tune in to a local radio station to find out if there are any school closures or delays.

And if you're heading out of the valley, be prepared. Chains were required Monday for all vehicles heading over the Willamette, Santiam and Siskiyou passes and traffic was tangled throughout the day. Two to 3 feet of snow fell in the mountains during the past couple days.

"We had a number of stalls, crashes and trees down across the road," Oregon State Police Lt. Dale Rutledge said. "All weather-related."

The highways were all open "but still a mess" on Monday night, Rutledge said.

In Eugene, tire chains and snow tires apparently were taking a back seat to sleds and mittens after the biggest valley-level snowstorm since as much as 8 inches fell in February 1996.

"Sleds are selling real quickly," said Rich Miller, a snow sports sales clerk at the GI Joe's store in Eugene. "Most people are just looking to go sledding or tubing and play around. We do a pretty good job of keeping all that in stock."

But at the Les Schwab Tire Center on East 18th Avenue, manager Chuck Lorentz said motorists were slow to react to the snow cover. "I think it surprised everyone this morning," Lorentz said. "But they didn't have to go anywhere today - most of them had a holiday."

His store had sold 96 sets of tire chains by midafternoon - a brisk pace, but down from as many as 150 per day as people geared up for the holiday travel season in late November. Still, attendants at the shop were kept busy changing customers' regular tires for snow tires.

"My main surprise is how good a mood everyone is in," Lorentz said.

In that category would be Kim Darling and her sons Travis and Wesley, and friend Kristi Rebeiz and her son Ramzi.

The boys played in about 4 inches of snow at Spencer Butte Park on Monday morning, sliding on toy snowboards down a 6-foot hill into the parking lot, as their mothers cheered them on and teased them with snowballs.

"I woke them up this morning and said, `Travis, look out the window, there's a little surprise,' ' said Darling, whose 4-year-old is new to snow this winter.

"We took them up to Willamette Pass a couple weeks ago," she said. "That was the first time Travis had seen snow, other than when he was too little to remember."

And for Rebeiz, the storm brought back a little of her own childhood.

"I moved here from Minnesota, so it's always a welcome thing to see snow," she said. "We used to get six months of snow. Now it's one day every four years or so."

SNOW UPDATES

School closures: Call GuardLine at 485-2000, enter category 7800; check the Internet at www.registerguard.com/standingdocs/closed.html or the Lane Education Service District's Web site at www.valleyinfo.net; tune to local radio stations, including the Eugene School District's KRVM-FM (91.9) and KRVM-AM (1280).

Road conditions: Call the state Department of Transportation at (800) 977-ODOT; check the Internet at www.registerguard.com/standingdocs/passcam_page.html or the Department of Transportation Web site at www.tripcheck.com.

CAPTION(S):

PAUL CARTER / The Register-Guard Hikers on Mount Pisgah on Monday morning slog through slush and rain on the lower part of the trail to be rewarded at the top with a picture-postcard landscape of snow. CHRIS PIETSCH / The Register-Guard Debby McGee (left) and others play at Eugene Training Center.