With 4-8 inches of snow likely, Arlington County says its crews are in a “Phase 1 alert” and are “prepped and ready to go.”
“We called in a team today to hook up our trucks with chains, spreaders and plows,” said Shannon Whalen McDaniel, spokeswoman for Arlington’s Dept. of Environmental Services. “We will also brine the roads throughout the night in preparation.”
(Updated at 10:40 p.m.) The National Weather Service issued a Winter Storm Warning for Arlington the rest of the D.C. area this afternoon.
As of Monday night, forecasters are saying that 4-8 inches of snow is likely on Tuesday, with the heaviest snow falling around the evening rush hour.
Arlington and much of the D.C. area will be under a Flood Watch on Saturday as the region prepares for a soaking.
The National Weather Service says 1-2 inches of rain are expected, raising the possibility of localized flooding.
The National Weather Service has issued a Freezing Rain Advisory for Arlington and the surrounding region.
Forecasters say a period of freezing rain is likely Friday morning. That could make for a hazardous morning commute. From NWS:
Update at 8:45 p.m. — First Down Sports Bar and Grill had to shut down tonight, also due to a burst water pipe. From the businesses’ Facebook page: “We have had to close down suddenly for tonight because of a water pipe burst. Hopefully, we’ll be back up and running tomorrow. We will have an update on here as soon as we figure it out. Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.”
Update at 8:35 p.m. — Tonight’s Arlington County Democratic Committee debate for County Board candidates was briefly evacuated tonight when a reported burst pipe triggered the fire alarm in the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association building.
Dominion is one of the power providers in the 13 states and District of Columbia that use the PJM Interconnect power grid. PJM informed all of its clients that the power grid is currently under stress because of the increase in electric heat use due to the frigid temperatures. It’s asking customers to help conserve energy.
“We are asking customers to consider altering their normal pattern of power usage to mitigate the draw that is on the electrical grid right now,” said Dominion Power spokesman Chuck Penn. “We are confident today, as we were yesterday, that we have sufficient power capacity to meet the demand, there are just some steps utilities are asking customers to take to ease the load. We are just responding to the request from PJM Interconnect.”
Arlington Public Schools will open on a two hour delay Tuesday morning due to the extreme cold.
APS sent the following email to families Monday evening.
Arlington’s Emergency Winter Shelter is now open, and will remain open continuously until the oncoming arctic cold front, expected to bring temperatures down to the single digits with a wind chill below zero degrees Fahrenheit, passes after tomorrow night.
The shelter, at 2049 15th Street N. in Courthouse, has capacity for 73 homeless clients, according to spokesman Jan-Michael Sacharko of the Arlington Street People’s Assistance Network (A-SPAN), which operates the shelter. However, it can provide some overflow shelter, if need be, and can send up to 15 people to the Residential Program Center on Columbia Pike.
A Wind Chill Advisory has been issued Arlington and the surrounding region.
The advisory is in effect starting at midnight tonight. The National Weather Service says temperatures will gradually fall throughout the day, bottoming out in the single digits tonight.
It might be cold and icy, but through a camera lens the snow that fell on Arlington last night can really look beautiful.
Arlington received about 2 inches of snow, according to the National Weather Service. Above are photos of the resulting winter wonderland sent to us via email, Twitter and Flickr.
The National Weather Service has issued a Wind Advisory for Arlington and the D.C. region Friday.
Wind gusts of up to 50 miles per hour are expected to combine with temperatures between 14 and 21 degrees for a bitterly cold Friday. Meanwhile, snow is currently moving in to the area, as forecasters are calling for about an inch of accumulation in Arlington through Friday morning.
Arlington snow lovers have been disappointed yet again by a hyped-up storm that ultimately fizzled out. It’s enough for a weather-watcher to shed frozen tears — if only the temperature was cold enough for those tears to freeze.
Clearly, forecasting winter weather in the D.C. area is a challenge, given the area’s propensity for hovering just above the freezing mark when winter precipitation threatens. In fact, meteorologists are being challenged by yet another possible “mixed precipitation” storm, heading toward the Washington region this weekend.
