On this date in 1909, a calendar-day record 9.8 inches of snow fell, coinciding with the inauguration of William Howard Taft.
“Washingtonians awoke to blizzard-like conditions,” wrote Capital Weather Gang’s Kevin Ambrose in his account of the storm. “Heavy snow and high wind whipped the capital. Nearly 10 inches of snow accumulated in D.C. that day.”
Taft’s swearing-in ceremony was moved indoors because of the storm, but the inaugural parade went on as scheduled.
The day before the storm, heavy rain (1.75 inches, a calendar-day record) had fallen, and the forecast was for improving weather. “Much to everyone’s surprise, the rain changed to snow during the evening of March 3, and the snow continued,” Ambrose wrote in another article about the storm.
The 9.8 inches of snow, the second most on record for a March calendar day, melted just a few days later, and the high temperature soared to 75 degrees on March 10.
Here are other notables for the day:
- Average high: 53
- Average low: 35
- Record high: 82 (1983)
- Record low: 4 (1973)
- Record precipitation: 1.24 inches (1993)
- Record snowfall: 9.8 inches (1909)
