On this day in 1857, a great snowstorm clobbered the DC area. Amounts in DC and about were around two feet, and the snow was accompanied by strong winds and bitter cold. The storm, which tracked from Georgia to the Virginia Capes, produced snowdrifts up to 20 feet high, according to the book Washington Weather. "The entire Middle Atlantic region endured severe blizzard conditions with temperatures near 0° F," the book wrote.
And on this day in DC in 1982, the high of 10 degrees and low of minus-5 were both the coldest on record for the date. Area temperatures dipped into the single digits or lower four times that month, which was the eighth-coldest January on record. Fifteen inches of snow also fell that month.
And, on this day in 1994, a significant ice storm hit the DC area, followed by a bitter Arctic blast in the days afterward. The Washington Post called it “the worst ice storm in years” and said it “created a canopy of crystalline trees and left below it a frozen dance floor across which cars, trucks, buses and people performed.”
Here are other notables for the day:
- Average high: 44
- Average low: 30
- Record high: 74 (1943)
- Record low: minus-5 (1982)
- Record precipitation: 1.09 inches (1994)
- Record snowfall: 5.5 inches (1935)
