Snow Starvation

The January "Snow Hole"

There's never enough frozen precipitation in Washington for the confirmed snow lovers, but they were up against a formidable obstacle for the latest rain event last night into this morning: the January 14 "snow hole". As hard as it is to get the right ingredients together on any winter day in the DC area, today's date is practically teflon-coated when it comes to the white stuff. The record snowfall for the date, 1.6" just over a half-century ago in 1957, is the lowest for any date in January. In fact, it's the only date in the month on which there has never at some point been a snowfall of at least 2". Except for Feb. 29, which of course has only a 25% chance of even appearing on the calendar, this is the lowest daily record until March 25, on which 1.5" fell over a century ago in 1906. For Dulles, which began operations in Nov. 1962, the record for this date is even more pathetic: a mere 0.3" in 1978. Dulles was similarly snow-starved on Jan. 27, with only 0.3" until 2004, when 0.6" was recorded.