A potentially historic storm is bearing down on us, coming up from the south in a blaze of glory.  Virginia has already had its huge storm, back in December.  Yet here comes another when last weekend’s storm still hasn’t melted. 

Predictions have changed hourly.  Currently the prediction for the Virginia burbs is 20-22 inches of snow by Saturday night.  That is a heap of snow.   The December storm was recorded at 16.4 inches for Washington, DC.  Naturally areas outside the city measured in at deeper amounts.

This storm is expected to hit around noon Friday.  VDOT has already requested that people stay home, starting Friday night.  It is harder to plow when cars are on the road.  This storm will be a real budget buster for VDOT.  Most area schools, especially in Virginia, cancelled classes for tomorrow. 

This will be our snow thread for the week.  Will we have a blizzard?  What will total amounts be?

70 Thoughts to “Potentially Historic Monster Storm Bears Down on the Washington Area”

  1. Poor Richard

    Always a tough call Emma – damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
    Sure MCPS decided to err on the side of caution – as they should.

  2. Emma

    I hate to sound like a cliche, but I remember walking home from school in some blinding snowstorms in New England, when the morning was clear. People just weren’t as litigious back then.

  3. It is a tough call. And it is always better to err on the side of caution. The temperature didn’t hit freezing until a while ago. 2 degrees made a huge difference.

  4. And I think that is exactly the point…litigious people.

  5. Pat.Herve

    but is it litigious people? I know of many areas that still keep schools open, it is just here, in NOVA that they seem to close schools before it snows, or with minimal accumulations.

  6. One of the reasons they close is because the the traffic in NOVA.
    Charlottesville used to do the same thing many years ago….so I don’t think it is a new thing.

  7. Emma

    It’s unprecedented that nearly the entire Washington area announced the school closings the day before the storm. These poor kids will be in school until July.

  8. Often schools are advised to do so by VDOT or the State cops. You don’t want to be trying to get a fleet of buses on the road when they are slick in the middle of a blizzard. Then there are the walkers….it never got above 34 at my house today. 2 degrees is not much. It made all the difference in the world as to what the weather was like. Also, there was still snow on the ground, lots of it. Sidewalks haven’t been shoveled from last week. There are many places where sidewalks aren’t in front of houses. Kids walk in the road. I saw it on Dale Blvd last week.

    I think all the schools made the right decision. Most schools have built in overtime so they don’t have to make up time.

  9. Emma

    @cindy b Thanks for the reminder about the snowcam. I posted it on my Facebook, and my northern friends are enjoying it.

  10. Lafayette

    We had 15″ at 7am in Manassas. Our street has even been plowed. Thanks to a former neighbor that moved to Sudley. I’m so thankful he still comes down our street and drops his blade. We have quite a few seniors on my block.

    I enjoyed watching the snow fall under the street lights last night. Too bad my friends in Sudley aren’t able to do the same. 😉

  11. I have trees down. 1 white pine uprooted and a cedar broken off.

    This stuff is dangerous at this point.

  12. Emma

    The power blinked out for just a second or two late last night, but thankfully it’s still on.

  13. Lafayette

    That’s no damn good, Moon. If they must fall, let them fall away from the house. Where are those “tree dudes” when you need them. I think Censored is familiar with the same bunch that hits the houses in WG. Good luck.

    Is Mr. Howler a lumberjack by chance? 🙂

  14. No, Mr. Howler just got out of the hospital for injuries inclurred during the Dec. blizzard. He can’t do jack $%^& much less be a lumber jack.

  15. Rereading all the posts here, I want to invite Michael blogger over to take out all the downed trees in my yard. Enjoy enjoy…just enjoy people.

  16. Loudoun County has already announced, no school Mon or Tues.

  17. Censored bybvbl

    Lafayette, the tree dudes are probably plopped in front of their tvs and downing a few beers.

    We had a couple short outages over night and two this morning. The generator is now yammering away since this time we heard five transformers blow so it will be awhile before we have power again.

    M-h, I had a youngish leyland cypress uproot during a storm five years ago. We restaked it and it recovered. But looking at it now, I think it may be a goner.

    My sister in Loudoun County sent some pictures of her husband clearing out some snow so their dogs could get out to pee. The snow was waist high.

  18. Good grief. Waist high is deep!

    This tree is a 30 year old white pine. It is about 35-40 feet tall. Its definitely a goner. Did your cypress go back over?

  19. Censored bybvbl

    M-h, I haven’t been up there to check it out. From the window it looks flattened. It was about 15-20 feet tall.

    My sister should have sent those wussy Newfies out to plow their own path. Her yard is pretty wide-open so it probably got a lot of drift.

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