Twenty-seven years ago, the first full weekend in January was marked by a historic winter storm in the D.C. area. The blizzard of ’96 dropped feet of snow that immobilized transportation arteries in the region.
Reagan National measured 17.2 inches with snow drifts up to five feet. At the time, it was the largest storm since the “Megalopolitan Storm” on Feb. 11, 1983.
The blizzard in ’96 was a classic southern storm that had access to plenty of cold air from Canadian high pressure anchored across northern New York state.
The snow ended on Jan. 8, but the aftermath kept the D.C. area blanketed in snow for days afterwards. All major highways were closed on Jan. 7 and the Metro trains were shut down through Jan. 9. Estimated damage from potholes and pavement failures in the Northeast was between $7 and $10 billion.
As if the blizzard wasn’t enough, a storm originating in Alberta, Canada, known as an “Alberta clipper” dumped four inches of snow in four hours one day later.
Snowfall for the week at Reagan National reached 23.9 inches, which broke the all-time record and ranked just behind the famous “Knickerbocker,” storm on January 25-27 in 1922. A bit of the snow from the blizzard and Alberta clipper melted and compacted so that by Jan. 10, 1996, 20 inches remained on the ground. This amount still holds the record for greatest snow depth for Jan. 10 at Reagan National.
The blizzard of 1996 was a rare major winter storm during a La Nina winter.
Fast forward 27 years later to this week, and D.C. is experiencing its third warmest start to January as of Monday. The average temperature for the first nine days of the month is 50.3 degrees, surpassed only by 1950 and 1998.