DC’s coldest winter in over 20 years

 

A frigid winter's day in the DMV

If this winter has felt particularly cold in the nation’s capital, then it’s with good reason. The 2025-2026 winter season is well-positioned to finish as DC’s coldest in decades. Despite the colder than average temperatures, it will finish with below average snowfall.

February got off to a frigid start in the DMV (DC, Maryland and Virginia) with below average temperatures on 12 of the first 13 days. The first week of February was so cold that DC’s average monthly temperature (combining daily high/low temperatures) on February 9 was more than 12° below average. Although several days this week have featured above average temperatures, this month has still been 6° colder than average.

January 2026 finished 4.2° colder than average and was DC’s coldest since 2014. The final eight days of the month remained below freezing. Last month also finished with 7” of snow, making it DC’s third consecutive snowier than average (4.9”) January. The last time the nation’s capital experienced three consecutive snowier than average January’s was back in the 1960s.

December 2025 was also frigid and finished 4.4° colder than average. It was the coldest December in the nation’s capital since 2010. It was also a drier than average month with below average snowfall.

NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center expects above average temperatures in late-February and early-March. Given how frosty the first half of February was, it would take near record-setting warmth to push monthly temperatures significantly closer to average. Temperatures like that aren’t on the horizon. That said, the potential exists for February 2026 to finish at least four degrees colder than average in the nation’s capital.

Although some months in the last 20 years have been colder than the corresponding months this winter, what makes this winter stand out is how all three months have been so cold. In fact, DC hasn’t had the three-month period (December, January and February) that comprises “meteorological winter” finish at least four degrees below average since 2002-2003. That means this winter could finish as DC’s coldest in 23 years.