Baltimore and Washington Area Finds Forecasts of Major Winter Storms Don't Pan Out

For many people in the Baltimore and Washington, DC areas Thursday night was a night to prepare for a forecasted major winter storm. Of course in this area that means that grocery stores were packed. I heard people discussing the upcoming storm as they purchased their recommended eggs, milk, and toilet paper. Of course, I had made the mistake of volunteering to pick up some items for dinner that night at the grocery store on the way home. The long lines in the end turned out the be the largest inconvenience from this "winter storm".

The winter storm was forecast to drop one to two inches of snow overnight in the Baltimore and Washington, DC area Thursday night into Friday morning. Then it was expected to switch over to freezing rain during the morning rush hour and continue off and on throughout the day leaving at least one quarter inch of ice accretion. In reality, the winter storm turned out to be a non-event for the Baltimore-Washington,DC region.

The winter storm did not start until later in the evening than expected, as the low dew points kept the precipitation from reaching the ground until the air column was saturated. This did not occur until close to 1 am for most of the Baltimore and Washington, DC metropolitan areas. The snow only lasted a couple hours before changing over to a mix of sleet, snow and freezing rain. Shortly thereafter it changed to freezing rain. This resulted in schools throughout the region to cancel classes for the day. In reality though, if they had issued two hour delays, most would have been in session later that day.

The freezing rain for the majority of the area changed over to plain rain between 8 and 9 am as the temperatures hovered between 32 and 35 degrees in the region the remainder of the day. I made my commute from near BWI airport to Bethesda, MD starting at 9:30 am and it took less than an hour to reach my office. That is a shorter commute than most days. The major roads were wet, and even the secondary roads had no ice on them from what I could discern as I drove on them. Despite the mistakes in their forecast, the National Weather Service kept most of the area in a Winter Storm Warning until early afternoon.

The overall accumulation appeared to be about 1/4 inch of snow, and maybe the slightest glazing of ice. The fears of a refreeze did not come to fruition either, as the temperatures remained above freezing Friday night.

Several employees in my office traveled from areas well west and north of Baltimore and Washington, DC and they reported very little trouble on the roads as well. Some of those areas had been expected to receive even more ice and snow than the Baltimore and Washington, DC Metro areas. Overall for the Baltimore and Washington, DC Metro areas along with even the outlying suburbs, the major winter storm of February 20-22 turned out to be nothing more than a minor inconvenience after it was forecast to be oh so much more. The biggest inconvenience the storm brought was probably to parents in the area who found schools and daycare centers shut down for the entire day.