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WASHINGTON (CN) — The new year’s first winter storm hit the nation’s capital late Sunday and continued Monday, blanketing Washington with several inches of snow in the city’s largest wintry blast since at least 2022.
The Washington Post’s Capital Weather Gang, the paper’s meteorology section, forecast that the D.C. metropolitan region could get up to a foot of snow by the end of the day.
Courthouses, government offices and schools announced that they would close Monday, leaving Capitol Hill the most active spot in Washington as lawmakers convened to certify President-elect Donald Trump’s electoral victory.
Despite the still-falling snow, winter activities were strictly forbidden on the Hill and security was tight around the Capitol complex, an echo of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot that nearly blocked Congress from confirming President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory.
Scale-proof fences capped with fresh snow encircled the campus, and dozens of officers from the U.S. Capitol Police; New York Police Department; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms; and a smattering of Maryland law enforcement agencies milled about.
The Capitol was unusually quiet inside without the normal buzz of staffers and tour groups.
Reporters complained about the lack of caffeine options in the Hill’s various restaurants and snack bars — the weather had apparently affected supplies of disposable coffee cups and stocks of Celsius energy drinks.
The snowstorm, though, proved no obstacle for lawmakers arriving at the Capitol for the joint session of Congress.
“We’re not letting the snow stop us from doing our critical work to certify the election,” wrote Michigan Representative Debbie Dingell in a post on X.
Louisiana Senator John Kennedy shared a photo from outside the Capitol of the Republican lawmaker clad in a trench coat and L.L. Bean Duck boots.
“Here to do Louisiana’s work at the Capitol today,” he quipped. “Too bad we don’t have Louisiana’s sunnier weather.”
Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton, Washington’s non-voting member of Congress, bemoaned the fact that heightened security around the Capitol meant that residents could not take advantage of the Hill’s grounds, which she said in a post on X was “the best place to sled” in the city.
As of noon, the Capital Weather Gang reported six inches of snow in northwestern D.C., putting the storm on track to surpass the most recent heavy snowstorm on Jan. 3, 2022, when 6.9 inches of snow fell, leaving some travelers on Interstate 95 stranded for 24 hours.
If 12 inches of snow accumulate, the storm would exceed the 10.3 inches that fell between Jan. 12-14, 2019, and mark the biggest snowfall since the so-called “Snowzilla” blizzard of January 2016, where the region saw up to 30 inches.
Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser announced a snow emergency through at least the end of Tuesday. The declaration requires residents to move parked cars from certain snow emergency routes to allow snowplows to clear and salt roads.
With snow expected to continue falling through Monday night, most school systems in the city will likely remain closed through Tuesday, extending winter break for students and teachers an extra day.
Local businesses remained open, albeit with limited hours and teams working to clear the sidewalks outside their entryways.
Residents who could work from home or take the day off took advantage of the snow, cross-country skiing through the streets and parks or taking their children sledding.
Meanwhile, hundreds took to Meridian Hill Park in Northwest D.C. to participate in an annual conditions-permitting snowball fight, lining up on either side of the 12-acre park and firing volleys as organizers from the DC Snowball Fight Association blew whistles.
The battle began at 11 a.m. and continued through the afternoon with the crowd moving back and forth down the park as they ran out of ammunition and the persistent snowfall continually restocked the ground for them.
Monday’s fight was the 15th anniversary of the community snowball fights, which began in 2010 in Dupont Circle. The event moves around D.C.’s several large public parks; last year it was held in downtown Franklin Park.
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