The Weather (2026)

[HalfSmokes]

"If something like this occurs"

You keep missing that part.

About 800k without power last I saw.

Var is seemingly upset because models a week out aren't accurate. If thats' his standard, he's always going to be upset.

Meanwhile, the rest of the country was able to use the forecasts to prepare.

FWIW, this was WXRisk's first call map posted on Friday:

For Alexandria, that map has us getting twice as much snow as we did

[imref]

For Alexandria, that map has us getting twice as much snow as we did

has it stopped sleeting? That map includes both snow and sleet totals.

I saw that DCA has cancelled all flights today.

[imref]

Sleet is still pouring down here in western prince william. Doesn't seem like much of a point in shoveling until it stops.

[imref]

Beltway closed in all directions at Van Dorn St for downed power lines.

[Count Walewski]

Around 10:00 AM my second grader and I left the house to frolic in the snow. At that time the snow here in South Arlington was definitely starting to transition into sleet or frozen rain or whatever: it sounded like rain and it looked like little tiny pieces of ice were falling. We sledded down two different hills, we climbed snow drifts, and we threw chunks of ice at a small frozen creek to see if they would break the ice. The snow unfortunately wasn't packable so no snowmen.

Perhaps we shall all perish in a horrific ice storm this evening but for now we are in a winter wonderland.

[imref]

1-2" of freezing rain in parts of Mississippi

https://x.com/ReedTimmerUSA/status/2015465120097341844?s=20

[varoadking]

The Waffle House closure report...

https://www.facebook.com/reel/827104903669048

[Natsinpwc]

84 Orlando. Just sayin.

[1995hoo]

I got up at 7:45, went outside, and there was already sleet coming down. Less snow than the forecast would have led me to expect, but I’d rather have snow than sleet. I’m not sure how much snow there is. A few inches, but doesn’t look like six. I ran my new battery-powered mini snowblower. Cleared my driveway, my next-door neighbor’s driveway (she was quite pleasantly surprised when she came out—the thing is so quiet she didn’t hear it running), the area in front of our driveways, the sidewalk, and my stoop. Then the battery ran out. By the time I got out of the shower, everything had a fresh coating again—but it’ll be less to deal with later. I may or may not get a second battery. We live in a townhouse with a one-car garage, so the battery lasted for just about the right amount of time, but it might be nice to have an extra if I ever want to stay out there to clear some more. Worked out well today, though. I came back in, showered, had breakfast, and spent an hour starting a Belgian beef stew in the slow cooker. Sleet is still coming down fairly hard at 1:45 (I can see it bouncing, which is how I know it’s sleet), so I’m not all that eager to go back outside and clear the driveway again.

Some of the morons are complaining that the Kingstowne plow hasn’t reached their streets yet. It has a lot of streets to cover. I’m waiting for someone to whine that “the county” isn’t doing a good enough job plowing. In other words, tell me you’re not from Virginia without saying you’re not from Virginia. (For those unfamiliar, Fairfax County doesn’t plow roads. VDOT does.)

[imref]

CWG says that the all-snow equivalent to what has fallen equates to about 1’. Still heavily sleeting here.

[imref]

Weather Channel says 2’ for Boston. Good thing the Pats are on the road.

[1995hoo]

Some dumbass in our neighborhood posted a complaint at 8:30 this morning that his street hadn’t been plowed. If I were at the HOA and I saw that, I’d ask the plow drivers to leave that street until last. (Plow came down our block around 2:30 this afternoon. Not that I’m going to drive anywhere. Our street connects to a VDOT street that has not been cleared, so who knows whether I’d make it up the hill further down the road.)

[blue911]

For the past hour we’ve had a light freezing rain. Now everything is coated in ice.

[imref]

Went out and shoveled. We’re at around 6/7 inches of snow / ice. Very heavy and a pita. Another half inch or so fell in the time I was out there. No freezing rain yet. No plow either but normally it takes a day or two to get to us in big storms.

[1995hoo]

I was thinking about going back out to tackle the driveway again, but I want to see the end of this game in Denver.

[Count Walewski]

Some dumbass in our neighborhood posted a complaint at 8:30 this morning that his street hadn’t been plowed. If I were at the HOA and I saw that, I’d ask the plow drivers to leave that street until last. (Plow came down our block around 2:30 this afternoon. Not that I’m going to drive anywhere. Our street connects to a VDOT street that has not been cleared, so who knows whether I’d make it up the hill further down the road.)

My wife is the president of our HOA, we are a very small community of 20ish townhomes. My wife made the strategic decision a few years ago to drop our snow removal service. We were paying our landscape company several thousand dollars per year for the option of having them do snow removal if needed. Most years, we were not exercising that option. The last few snowstorms, we had volunteers from the community shovel and spread salt.

This morning, my wife's Treasurer was shoveling the sidewalk in front of his unit when he saw a private snow plow truck slowly driving by. In what must have been a comically slow motion affair on the part of both him and the snow plow truck, he ran after the truck, flagged it down, and asked for a quote. The quote came in very low and he was hired on the spot. He's done a fantastic job.

[varoadking]

This just in from the climate soothsayer's:

[GataNats]

84 Orlando. Just sayin.

Orlando is a terrible city.   Just saying

[Natsinpwc]

Orlando is a terrible city.   Just saying

Aw your poor thing.

[imref]

Models showing a nor'easter for this weekend that could bring heavy snow to the North East. Doesn't look like the DC area will get anything out of it though.

[nats2playoffs]

9 inches of snow in Gaithersburg Sunday, followed by sleet or freezing rain..
 

[The Chief]

Checked a few unspoiled spots around the yard here, looks like final tally is 6" of snow and 1" of ice.  Thankfully the morning sun made it relatively easy to clean off the car after clearing around the car yesterday.

[imref]

CWG with some post-storm analysis:

The winter storm that shut the D.C. area down Sunday was an exceptional one — not simply because of how much precipitation fell, but because of what fell and how cold it was when it fell.

The defining feature of this storm was historic sleet, falling at uncommonly low temperatures. That combination — heavy sleet embedded in deep cold — created a storm that will prove far more disruptive and longer-lasting than a typical snowstorm.

Usually, when sleet falls, it does so in small quantities, often less than an inch, and at temperatures near freezing. But this storm spilled up to 4 inches of icy pellets, an amount unmatched since at least February 1994, and at temperatures mostly in the teens.

Falling atop 4 to 7 inches of snow, the frozen concoction consolidated to a depth of 6 to 9 inches. But this was no ordinary 6 to 9 inches. The water packed inside was comparable to the contents of a 20-inch blizzard. And with nighttime temperatures forecast to plunge into the single digits for days, the mass will remain frozen solid well into the week. There is no telling when this glacial-like offering will finally melt.

The storm itself was born from a remarkable confluence of extremes. As an unusually intense Arctic air mass, sourced from Siberia, surged southeastward, it collided with a jet of moisture streaming in from the Pacific near Hawaii. “To summarize this storm briefly, the Pineapple Express (wet) meets the Siberian Express (cold),” the National Weather Service wrote ahead of the storm.

That unusual setup made this a bear of a forecast. The competing air streams and narrow margins between snow, sleet and freezing rain flummoxed forecasters. Poorly tuned weather apps advertised totals over 20 inches, and in the meteorological community, three forecasters could easily offer 30 opinions.

Against that backdrop, we are proud of how this forecast performed at the Capital Weather Gang. Although we made some mistakes in how we predicted and communicated aspects of this storm, we captured the essence of what it would deliver more than 48 hours in advance — and we did not waver.

[varoadking]

CWG with some post-storm analysis:
...we made some mistakes in how we predicted and communicated aspects of this storm...

Duh...

[imref]

Latest Euro runs still show a monster nor'easter this weekend hitting from Virginia up into New England, GFS keeps it out to sea.  Google's AI model aligns with the Euro.