Close to 4 inches of snow blanketed the District on this day in 1989. “The second big snowstorm of the season slipped into the Washington area early yesterday and lasted long into the night, closing schools, impeding morning traffic, shutting down local, state and federal governments at midafternoon and slowing outbound commuters,” The Washington Post reported. “The unusual feature of the storm, which dropped four to eight inches of snow, was that it developed mostly according to predictions, and for once the routine preparations afforded area residents an almost orderly snow day.”
It fell during a frigid month; the average temperature of 27.9 degrees ranked as the second-coldest December on record. The snow that day remained on the ground for three weeks (until Dec. 30), offering a rare white Christmas.
Here are other notables for this day:
- Average high: 51
- Average low: 36
- Record high: 74 (1978)
- Record low: 8 (1882)
- Record precipitation: 1.35 inches (1972)
- Maximum snow: 3.6 inches (1989)
