Washington, DC, and points nearby are all bracing for a major winter storm. Blizzard watches are in effect starting Friday for both DC and Baltimore, as well as for a lot of northern Virginia.

Myself, having lived in north Texas for almost 20 years, the largest snowstorm we had was about six years ago when we had NBA All-Star weekend at AT&T Stadium. We had a record 12.5" fall then...other than that, if we saw 4", we had a major snow event. This storm is likely to drop anywhere from 18 to 24" of snow in places.

Doesn't sound good. Keep safe.

Where I live an inch of snow causes chaos and normally shuts schools, affects public transport with cancelled buses on many routes. It sounds wimpish and when I first moved here I laughed but now realise that it is downright dangerous. Firstly, because snow is rare, people don't have a clue how to drive in it, about skids and how to handle them. Secondly, almost all journeys require travelling down or up a hill. Thirdly, and most important, most of our roads are very narrow and passing oncoming traffic on dry days can be a case of one car stopping to permit another to pass them on some stretches of road and the roads are edged with either granite walls or banks with rocks in them, not forgiving if you slide into one.

I am in the eye of the storm - they're predicting between 1-2 feet of snow. Unfortunately, while everyone is focused on tomorrow's storm, no one prepared for the dusting-1 inch of snow last night and we had horrible traffic jams.

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/...lFlowFB_DCBrand

Whilst a bit further North than Sue943, the same applies to the majority of UK. Anything over, say, 1" of snow, and it is considered a major snowfall, and the entire infrastructure grinds to a halt. Even here on a Coastal Plain, where the nearest thing to a hill is about 15 miles away, snow causes chaos on the roads and Merseyrail seldom needs much to get even more erratic than usual with train timetables. However compared with our friends over the pond, we almost "don't get snow".

What we usually get, due to the effect of the Gulf Stream, are mild winters, with much rain and accompanying floods, which is what we have experienced 95% of the time since beginning of November. We did get a "cold snap" a few days ago, had around 0.5" of snow in some places (it was gone within 36 hours), but are "back to normal" now........it's raining!

I did...and it still took me two hours to get home last night. I'm also due for anywhere from 18-30"** of snow. I'm not under a blizzard watch in the county I'm in at this time, but ones up around Fairfax and Woodbridge (about 25-40 miles north of me) are. Stafford (ten miles to my east) is also going to be under a blizzard warning.

**edit to add: they upped our upper threshold potential after I woke up this morning. See here

That is what happens in north Texas.

It took my sister-in-law 7 hours 14 minutes to get home yesterday from Reston to near the National Zoo... And my husband took about an hour and a half to go 13 miles. Oddly enough, our town's roads were the best because unlike the majority of Virginia, we live in an actual town with its own plows...

That's not that far a distance, is it? I'm not sure where Reston is, but the Zoo would be in DC.



I drove 22½ miles last night, but the last five were the worst...had to take back roads, and one was a solid sheet of ice. I-95 was primarily just wet from Fredericksburg to Stafford, however, that didn't stop some folks from driving 65mph out of Fredericksburg.

It should take about 45 minutes to an hour, normally...

I'm just glad I'm on maternity leave and can stay out of this mess.

That's dependent on traffic too, I'm sure. I've found out what traffic can be like in this area...

Don't suppose you all want to know that it's 35*C here and the humidity is horrible?

But keep safe everyone and hope you're all stocked up!

dg dave.............Well as North Texas is around 32N latitude, they may be forgiven for not being used to snow......UK is a tad further North (51N latitude)and ought to be less taken by surprise on the odd occasions we get the stuff.

However, stay safe all you folks over the pond.

Jersey is 49.1900° N, 2.1100° W. It really depends so much on the wind direction, if it is coming NE then that could bring snow as we are close to the mainland of Europe, today it is SW to W and temperature will be a high of 11C because the sea temperature isn't cold and the wind will be only travelling over the ocean until it hits us.

Sue...........I live 21 miles from Liverpool (though am East Anglian exile! Lol), and other than last week when it dropped to 32-35F, has been 50'sF all winter. 52F today, with climbing to 55F on Sunday forecast. Hope our American "cousins" keep all that snow and ice their side of the big pond!

...well I broke our snowblower. We have one that plugs in and uses an extension cord. Well, the cord apparently came loose and started melting the plug bit... so when I jammed the plug back into the snowblower it fused to the snowblower. At least it fused so it's working. I'll worry about getting it fixed after this snow. And hopefully it holds up through this storm! We had about 3-4 inches by 6pm and snow isn't going to stop until tomorrow night!

Nothing a good, old-fashioned shovel won't do, right?

edit: I'm sitting on about 6-7" of snow, and it isn't slowing.

Hopefully the snowblower will hold up.

I haven't been out since 6pm. I heard it's supposed to be a white out tomorrow morning. My daughter is going crazy - she has already played outside twice today and when she wakes up and sees it all...

If anyone wants to see what the stores look like around here: https://www.facebook.com/RestonNow/photo...9113804/?type=3

I was out from 7:30am until 12:15pm...haven't been anywhere since. You are correct, as I heard the worst of it will be from 11pm to 8am, but the winds will howl all day tomorrow, making for blizzard conditions in places. While I was out, the bread and egg aisles were wiped out. I went to Wal-Mart last night on my way home from work for a couple of things, and their bread aisle was barren as well.

I'm ready for this to end 10½ hours ago...

Jonas.

That's the name - Winter Storm Jonas. This storm is weird because the further north it strays, the less snow is expected. But even the "lesser" snow amount where I am is going to be an issue. With every forecast I hear, the snow limit goes up. Right now it's at 12-18 inches expected.

Even worse for coastal areas, tomorrow is a full moon and those tides will be killer. The cool effect of lightning and thunder during the blizzard is also expected. That's a very strange thing to witness! The first time I saw it, I was questioning what I saw All the barometric pressure changes have been giving me a migraine since yesterday.

Copago, I'm trying not to hate you! No offense meant towards you, it's jealousy really. I would be interested in seeing how Chip and Dusty cope with over a foot of snow though.

Even Hong Kong woke up to 8 C this am and 3 expected tomorrow. I am staying in bed!!

I'm just outside of DC and woke up to over a foot of snow and it's still coming down heavily. Just happy to still have power. Here's a great video of one commuter's experience in the Wednesday mess Ladymacb was talking about:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2v1S0-5-X6M&feature=youtu.be

We in DC and northern Virginia would LOVE to see 3°C, Ren! It is -3°C here and still snowing!

I hope you all keep safe. And don't wait for the snow to get too high before you shovel or it will kill you. I must have read that somewhere.

Meanwhile, after our heavy fall inch of snow last weekend, today it has been 8°C (48°F) and is expected to be 13°C (55°F) tomorrow. I've had to put out a bird feeder full of sheep's wool in case the birds start nesting!

Max9°C Min 6°C Current 7.3°C
Cloudy with occasional rain or drizzle. Mist or fog patches this evening, becoming more extensive overnight.
UV Index: 1
Visibility Moderate to good, becoming moderate to very poor overnight.
Wind 20 mph South F5 Southeast to south moderate F4 to fresh F5, increasing fresh F5 to strong F6 by late afternoon, decreasing moderate F4 to fresh F5 overnight.
Sea state Moderate with swell.

Sorry folks with snow. It was a bit foggy this morning and some drizzle but not cold.

Your supermarket shelves look a little like ours did in early January with strong winds prevently the boats coming in with supplies.

I have 2-3 feet of snow. Of course, it's about 3 feet on the driveway. Didn't get up during the night to clear the driveway because of the newborn, so I have about 2/3 of the driveway cleared now. I'm going to clear tomorrow to the sidewalk and then work on the sidewalk instead of finishing the driveway since the plows will probably block me in when those come around. Still haven't seen one so I'm anticipating probably Monday before we get one on our sidestreet.