Whidbey Islanders felt the chill of an unusually cold winter over the past week.

Fortunately, it looks like the island will get a reprieve from the wintry lousy weather. The snow that was forecast for the region Tuesday morning seemed to skip North Whidbey and temperatures are expected to rise. Today’s should top 40 degrees and the rest of the week will have similar temperatures along with partly sunny skies.

That’s a nice change from the frigid weather and snow that plagued Whidbey Island in recent days. The mercury has dipped as low as 18 degrees. That, along with several inches of snow that fell the evening of Jan. 9 made for slick conditions that lingered and left law enforcement and road crews busy.

The Island County Sheriff’s Office responded to 145 motor vehicle accidents and 75 calls concerning traffic hazards.

Sheriff Mark Brown said the office kept up with the call volume with normal staffing levels. He thanked the good work of the staff at I-COM, which has maintained dispatching volumes despite having minimal staffing.

One accident of note occurred Friday afternoon when an Oak Harbor resident lost control of her Jeep on an icy Zylstra Road, slid off the roadway and crashed into a utility pole. The driver, Joanna O’Connor, was treated and released.

Dave Chesson, spokesperson for the Washington State Department of Transportation, said work crews sanded the highway Monday night preparing for Tuesday’s predicted snow fall.

He said this week’s warmer weather will give work crews time to perform maintenance on their equipment and resupply so they’re ready for the next storm.

“We’re kind of hoping this warming trend will continue,” Chesson said.

School was delayed several days last week to deal with the severe weather.

Coupeville schools had two-hour delays Thursday and Friday. School has already been cancelled in the Central Whidbey school district for three days and students will start making those days up later this month.

The Oak Harbor School District operated on a normal schedule Tuesday morning, but used snow routes for buses, while the South Whidbey School District, which received some snow, ran two hours late.

So far, the Oak Harbor School District has canceled only two days of school.