Powerful January Winter Storms

 

January 2016, Bethesda, Maryland

The nation's capital has seen a number of memorable January snow events.  Here are some of the more recent ones.

2016:  While “only” 17.8 inches fell at National Airport, 22.4 inches fell at the National Zoo. Areas west and north of town saw appreciably more. For example, Dulles Airport saw its second largest snow total on record with 29.3 inches, according to the National Weather Service. Totals of more than three feet were observed in central Maryland and parts of Virginia.

The Blizzard of 2016 also ranks as the fourth largest snowstorm on record in Philadelphia with 22.4 inches. It set snowfall records at JFK and LaGuardia Airports (30.6 inches and 28.2 inches respectively) in New York City. Meanwhile, New York City’s Central Park finished with 27.5 inches that set its all-time snowfall record.

2011: Dubbed “Carmageddon” because several inches of heavy, wet snow snarled the evening rush hour and caused many folks to get stranded in their vehicles overnight or abandon them.  While there weren’t historic snow accumulations, the heavy, wet snow came at the worst time as road crews weren’t able to do much given the high volume of traffic during the p.m. rush.  National Airport officially saw 5.0”, while January 26 snowfall records were observed at Dulles (7.3”) and BWI Airports (7.6”).  

2000: D.C.’s “surprise” January 25 snow event remains one of the larger failures of numerical weather prediction (computer weather modeling).  Originally expected to stay to our south and go out to sea, this storm instead came far enough north to bring 9”-18” of snow to the nation’s capital.  Not until late evening on Monday, January 24, did DC-area meteorologists update the forecast to include accumulating snowfall. 

In the era before social media, most folks who had gone to bed woke up Tuesday morning to a surprise snow day.  Daily January 25 snowfall records were set at all three DC-area airports in what was the largest snow event in the nation’s capital in more than four years since the Blizzard of 1996.

1996: This storm brought the nation’s capital 17.3 inches of snow on January 6-7, 1996. The January 1996 blizzard was D.C.’s single largest snowfall since the President’s Day 1979 storm (18.7 inches). The epic January 1996 snow event is one of only two winter storms to be ranked as a Category 5 or “extreme” storm on NOAA’s “Northeast Snowfall Impact Scale.”

 

With a monthly total of 23.8 inches, January 1996 was the snowiest January in Washington, D.C. since 1935. A rapid warmup later in the month, combined with heavy rainfall, produced devastating flooding for parts of the DMV.  This would remain DC's largest snow event until "Snowmageddon" in February 2010 and was tied by the January 2016 winter storm.