WASHINGTON (HUNS) — Longtime Washington-area residents have been reflecting on storms that once shut down the region as they continue to recover from Winter Storm Fern, which moved throughout the country on Jan. 25 bringing several inches of snow and freezing temperatures.
While the snowfall in the DMV did not reach historic levels, the storm sparked memories of major winter events like the Blizzard of 1996 and Snowmageddon in 2010, when multiple feet of snow halted daily life.
D.C. native Amarichi Ekekwe posted a video on TikTok on Jan. 22 discussing the infamous 2010 winter storm, locally known as Snowmageddon. The video has received more than 92,000 views, and over 600 people who also experienced the storm joined the conversation in the comments.
Ekekwe experienced her first winter storm in eighth grade, an event she said was unforgettable.
“I can actually visualize trying to open our front door,” Ekekwe said. “There was so much snow piled up to where my parents couldn’t open the door for a few days.”
She recalled being excited to see snow for the first time and spending an entire week out of school.
“I hadn’t experienced a storm of that magnitude, so I was really excited because we were going to be able to get out of school,” she said. “It was projected that we were going to be out of school for maybe two to three days, which actually turned into being out of school for a week and a half.”
Occurring in early February 2010, Snowmageddon dropped more than 20 inches of snow across parts of the District, Maryland and northern Virginia.
The heavy snow and blizzard-like conditions forced airport and federal office closures, extended school cancellations and states of emergency across the region.
Forecasters initially predicted that Winter Storm Fern would bring six to 10 inches of snow to the DMV area, warning it could rival some of the region’s bigger winter events. The storm delivered about four to nine inches of snow, with official totals near 6.9 inches in D.C.
While the storm brought heavier snowfall to parts of the Midwest and Northeast, the impact in the DMV was more moderate, with disruptions driven largely by ice and transportation delays rather than snowfall totals.
Ekekwe created the video because of how the media portrayed the severity of the storm. She thought it wasn’t going to be as serious as forecasters projected.
“If I lived in a state like Texas or Louisiana where this weather was not normal or common, I probably would have panicked,” Ekekwe said. “Being as though that I live in the DMV and we experience all four seasons, I just knew that we weren’t going to experience anything that was going to be crippling.”
It turns out that “crippling” is a Category 4 on the Northeast Snowfall Impact Scale (NESIS), but Winter Storm Fern hasn’t been officially ranked yet. The National Centers for Environmental Information ranked Snowmaggedon as a Category 3 (major) and the Blizzard of 1996 as a Category 5 (extreme) due to its widespread impact on the East Coast with up to 48 inches of snow in western Virginia.
The early January storm brought more than 30 inches of snow throughout the DMV, with Reagan National Airport recording around 17 inches and areas in Maryland seeing more than 40 inches “whipped into 5- to 8-foot snow drifts,” according to the National Weather Service.
Christopher Beckford, who was born in D.C. and moved to Mount Rainer, Maryland when he was 24, described the blizzard as “definitely one to remember.” Beckford said he was stuck in D.C. for about six days.
“A storm like that one is one that will stick with you,” he said. “It wasn’t like the D.C. we have now with Ubers and cabs; the Metro was even shut down. It felt almost like a pandemic.”
Beckford said the lingering snow also created unexpected challenges and opportunities for neighbors to help one another.
“I remember helping an older lady with a small sports car who was stuck in the snow,” he said. “Because she said I was kind enough to help her, she gave me a ride the rest of the way to my house.”
Similarly, Ekekwe said the conditions during Snowmageddon pushed her neighborhood to come together to clear snow from the hill where her home was located, after professional crews were unable to assist because the street was classified as private.
“It was a really beautiful time because it showed the camaraderie within our neighborhood, ensuring that not only the people at the top of the hill could get out, but also elderly residents who needed to get medication or go to work were able to do so safely,” Ekekwe said.
One of the biggest problems after major snowstorms has consistently been transportation. Unplowed streets and icy conditions are still making travel difficult after Winter Storm Fern.
The National Weather Service reported that travel conditions can remain hazardous for days after a winter storm as snow and ice continue to impact major roads and highways.
Following the storm, city officials acknowledged that snow and ice were still hindering movement and said they were working to bring in additional heavy machinery and plows to clear residential streets and sidewalks after the initial cleanup proved slow.
“In the context of how the snow came down, the snow then multiple hours of sleet and freezing rain, followed by a historic run in our city of below freezing temperatures,” Mayor Muriel Bowser told WTOP News.
As the region braced for Winter Storm Gianna this weekend, the district distributed free salt to residents on Saturday and Sunday.
Camille Jackson, 53, has lived in D.C., Montgomery County and Prince George’s County, and has experienced both the 1996 and 2010 snowstorms.
Jackson said the dangers of winter storms extend beyond snowfall, adding that post-storm conditions create what she described as “the worst traffic in the country.”
“What people don’t talk about enough is that snow itself isn’t the real issue. Black ice is,” Jackson said. “No one wants school buses sliding around, people on public transportation falling and not being able to get up, or commuters risking accidents just to prove toughness.”
Jackson also compared Fern to winter storms during her years living in New York, where lake-effect snow often made roads and daily travel especially dangerous.
“When lake-effect snow hit in New York, life just kept going and there was no drama,” she said. “In the DMV, the Capital Beltway, especially I-495, connects everyone, meaning that one slip-and-slide accident can trap thousands of people.”
For many residents, Winter Storm Fern was less about the inches of snow on the ground and more about shared memories, neighborhood cooperation and the resilience that defines life in the DMV.
Morgan Knight covers culture, lifestyles and trends for HUNewsService.com.
