Weather

Winter Storm Warning Expanded To Greater DC Area

The "biggest Jan snow event since 2016" is arriving soon in the D.C. area. Flakes will start falling Saturday afternoon.

WASHINGTON, DC -- The National Weather Service has expanded the winter storm warning to include the greater D.C. area, which is about to experience its "biggest Jan snow event since 2016" this weekend, according to the Washington Post's Capital Weather Gang. Expect flakes to start falling Saturday afternoon and keep coming deep into Sunday.

"Several inches" are likely to accumulate Saturday night into Sunday morning, CWG says. The winter storm warning lasts from 4 p.m. Saturday until 1 p.m. on Sunday.

Early Saturday morning, the National Weather Service upgraded the District and surrounding counties in Virginia and Maryland from a winter weather advisory to a winter storm warning.

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The current NWS forecast calls for 3 to 6 inches, a slight increase from earlier predictions.

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There is a "boom" potential for up to 9-10 inches of snow, CWG says. The "bust" scenario would be less than 3 inches.

Forecasters expect the snow to come in two waves. The first wave will be late Saturday afternoon to the evening, when there could be a period of moderate snow. That should taper off overnight, and then pick up again sometime Sunday morning.

This could be a very snowy winter for us. The polar vortex split recently, meaning we are likely (but not guaranteed) to get an influx of cold air this winter and with it more snowstorms.

(Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)


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