On this date in 1987, 3.4 inches of snow fell as a major winter storm began. It would be followed by a calendar-day record 6.9 inches the next day for a storm total of 10.3 inches. Up to 14 inches fell in D.C.’s northern suburbs.
The snow was very heavy and wet, falling at temperatures between 33 and 35 degrees.
“Lights went out in Fairfax County and other jurisdictions, as electric power lines sagged and snapped beneath the burden of the fast-falling snow, heavy with moisture borne north from the Gulf of Mexico,” The Washington Post reported.
It was the third snowstorm in about four weeks. Back-to-back snowstorms in late January produced 20 inches in the District.
Here are other notables for the day:
- Average high: 50
- Average low: 33
- Record high: 77 (1874)
- Record low: 9 (1963)
- Record precipitation: 2.27 inches (2003)
- Record snowfall: 4.5 inches (1894)
