The ever-reticent, always-understated Washington media were in full hyperventilation mode heading into today's snowstorm, predicting snow to start around lunchtime or early afternoon and then 16-24" by the time it ends Saturday afternoon. So when the first flakes began flying just before 9:30 this morning, I imagine many around town reached for their paper bags and began breathing even harder.
But it's been a wet soggy bust so far.
I went out for Chinese at 5:30, and the biggest danger were the, um, drivingly-challenged who think it's best to try to stop on a hill--either on the way down, or on the way up. The hill on Hooes Road right by our neighborhood had two cars on it who had stopped on the way up and who couldn't get going again. Just keep moving, people, that's the secret.
With 12 hours gone into this storm, I just finished the first shoveling of the day, moving ~3" of wet, heavy snow. In some regards this snow was easier to shovel than the last storm: by being so heavy, it schlooped neatly into the shovel and didn't fall out. But lifting, that was a harder thing. Fortunately I'd invested in a new, more-ergonomic shovel in the last month. It worked better.
I took care of our driveway in really no time at all. I then plowed the driveway of a neighbor who's out of town, then for good measure shoveled the street in front of our house for 2-3 cars to be able to fit there on Chili Bowl night. All told, I'm tired, but not exhausted.
Now let's see what the night brings. There's talk of blizzard conditions and 2" per hour and oodles of the stuff by morning. Mmm, possible. But color me skeptical. Not too long ago, the line between where it snows and where it's just rain was only down around Triangle. If that shifts north only a few miles, we start looking soggier than snowier. I guess that's part of the uncertainty of weather in NoVA.
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