Memories of Washington DC snowstorms

All this talk of "snowzilla" — "snowmageddon" or "snowpocalypse" — in the Washington DC area in the States has me remembering storms I lived through back there, all those years ago. The city could get anywhere from 1 to 3 feet of snow today. Walt and I lived in Washington from 1982 until 1986, and I had spent a lot of time there with friends in the 1970s.

The Georgetown neighborhood in Washington DC with 19 inches of snow in February 1979

In February 1983, I had just started a new job with the federal government, working with CHM on a magazine that was published in both English and French. On Monday, February 10, it started snowing. By the time the snow ended the next day, we had over 16 inches (about 42 centimeters) of the white stuff on the ground. Federal workers were excused from going to work, because the city and its transit systems were paralyzed.

At the time, I happened to own a little 1979 Subaru station wagon that had on-demand four-wheel drive. In other words, the snow didn't really stop me from driving around. Walt and I spent a good part of the day touring the snow-covered city by car. There was no traffic to speak of, of course, and it was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, this was well before the days of the digital camera, so I have only the sketchy memories that have stayed in my head as a souvenir.

My 1979 4WD Subaru wagon

Here's a list of the top 10 deep snowfalls that Washington DC has experienced over the past century. The record, from 1922, amounted to 71 centimeters:

 1.    28.0”  (January 27-29, 1922)
 2.    20.0”  (February 12-14, 1899)
 3.    18.7”  (February 18-19, 1979)
 4.    17.8”  (February 5-6, 2010)
 5.    17.3”  (January 7-9, 1996)
 6.    16.6”  (February 10-11, 1983)
 7.    16.4”  (December 18-19, 2009)
 8.    16.4”  (February 16-18, 2003)
 9.    14.4”  (February 15-16, 1958)
10.   14.4”  (February 7, 1936)

I happened to be in Washington on February 18, 1979 too. That was storm no. 3 on the list above. The first photo in this post shows Georgetown in DC during the 1979 storm. Walt didn't take it, nor did I. He bought it for me as a present in 1983, and we had it framed. It hangs on a wall in our dining room now as a reminder of those snowstorms, which seem to hit Washington with some regularity.

As the February 1979 storm started, a friend was still willing to drive me out to Dulles airport as planned (thanks, Eleanor) in early evening so that I could fly back to Illinois, where I was living at the time. (By the way, we often had big snowstorms out there too — 150 miles south of Chicago). Dulles airport is 30 miles — 50 km — west of central Washington DC. We were about half way there when the car started sliding around because of snow and ice. We slid right off the road and I was sure I would never be able to get to the plane on time — I had to work the next day.

I was able to get out of the car and push it back onto the roadway as my friend spun the wheels in reverse from the driver's seat. We made it to the airport, and I barely caught my plane. It might have been the last plane to take off that evening from Dulles, because the runways were already snow-packed. I worried about my friend getting back to the city, but later she told me that she had been lucky to follow a snow plow all the way back from the airport to her house on the edge of Georgetown.

Our so-called snowstorms here in Saint-Aignan pale in comparison. Think good thoughts for CHM today. He's in Arlington, just outside DC. I hope his electricity doesn't go out because of the heavy snowfall. If it does, he'll be without lights, heat, or Internet access, and who knows for how long... Bon courage, CHM.