Record breaking snow weekend

Over the weekend the D.C. area was hit by biggest snowstorm we’ve had in years. And in December – it’s virtually unheard of! It started snowing last Friday night and continued steadily through Saturday evening for a total of more than 16 inches in 24 hours. We live close to the city, which means we always get the least amount of snow – neighboring cities saw 20+ inches.

The storm upset a few records: (1) it is now the region’s seventh largest snowstorm on record (the old list is here), and (2) set a new monthly record for December snowfall. That means we broke the monthly record in 24 hours – crazy!

I thoroughly enjoyed this storm. It arrived with plenty of warning on Friday evening so Matt, Eva, and I were able to hole up for a planned three-day weekend. The view out our living room window looked like the picture above all day Saturday. I think we were technically experiencing a blizzard, but if you grew up on The Long Winter like I did blizzards in real life never measure up to Laura Ingalls Wilder’s descriptions.

Though it snowed until late Saturday night, the worst of it tapered off in the late afternoon and we were able to go outside and shovel our walk (picture at right). It was still miserable outside, and Eva and I didn’t stay out very long.

Matt spent two hours shoveling on Sunday morning (picture at left). Our whole neighborhood was out at the same time in a big shoveling fest. If you’re going to do backbreaking work, you might as well get some warm fuzzies witnessing a community effort. It’s times like these when we are grateful to live in a townhouse just a few steps and an access road to clear out – and with some really nice neighbors.

D.C. cannot handle this amount of snow, so the region has barely started to recover. The freeways were cleared yesterday, but the side streets are a mess. The government is closed, schools are closed for the rest of the year (they started the holiday break a few days early), and the airports are a mess because no one was able to fly out over the weekend. Matt braved the streets today and successfully ran a few errands, so I think life will be back to normal tomorrow. Not that Eva and I will do anything more than take a walk around the block.

I’m so thankful we were able to stay home this weekend and a enjoy a snowstorm for a change. There are a few more pictures below, and a whole gallery of snow here.