I spent a good bit of my teens in upstate New York buried under several feet of snow for 10 months out of the year. One year we had record high temperatures the weekend before Mother’s Day and it snowed the following weekend on Mother’s Day. When my father was unpacking his new snow blower (purchased shortly after we moved there), the neighbor advised that he should promptly return it. The front opening was a mere 2 or 3 feet tall. Apparently this wasn’t enough to clear a night’s worth of snowfall. He was very very right. We spent almost every morning glued to the television hoping that this would be the morning for a snow delay. No such luck.
For two years in high school, I had exactly one weather cancellation from school…for ice. Nothing stops ice. There is really now way around it. You can salt
and sand all you want, but ice is ice. It coats everything. It pulls down power lines and tree branches and it makes sidewalks absolutely treacherous to walk on. I wish that I could report that last night’s storm was as incredible as the ice storm we had in Baldwinsville NY that year, but it isn’t even close. Our ice storm hit after three days of lake effect snow had dumped several feet on the ground. Followed by an entire evening of sleet and freezing rain, there wasn’t much we could do to get out of our houses. The giant snow blower wasn’t going to eat all the ice. And then the freezing rain continued that morning. By the following morning, the roads were clear and almost dry and we went back to school. Somehow I doubt that would happen here. But then again, our snow plows could push down the entire tiny 1950s row house that I live in. I think the City of Alexandria is probably not going to invest in a giant snowplow.
So anyways, we have ice. King street is totally fine. The sidewalks from the metro station to the store are ice free for the most part. There are a few businesses who have not yet thrown salt out there. Some were clearly doing so all night, as their sidewalks are DRY! Parking is rather nice today…