District Snow Team Readies for Winter Weather Sunday

The District Snow Team is prepared for the wintry weather expected Sunday afternoon. The team will fully deploy 220 snow plows Sunday, Feb. 19, beginning at 11 a.m., according to a press release from the Department of Public Works (DPW) Friday. Plows will be on their routes as long as necessary. 

According to the news release issued Friday, weather forecasters were predicting from three to six inches of snow, falling between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Sunday. But, as of Saturday evening, the National Weather Service is merely calling for a light accumultion of snow. NWS expects the snow begin falling Sunday afternoon, with the heaviest snowfall expected to southwest of the city. Temperatures will be in the mid-30s. 

On Friday, the Washington Post's Capital Weather Gang was not so sure about the snowy situation Sunday. Wes Junker wrote:

It’s still too early to make any definitive call on the storm though I still think it probably will not be a major storm. There are still too many things that can go wrong. More likely would be a light to moderate snow storm, a light rain to snow storm with little or no accumulation, or even a complete miss.

In the case it does snow, DPW asks property owners to pre-treat their sidewalks with abrasives, remove snow within 24 hours of the end of the storm and assist elderly or disabled neighbors with clearing their sidewalks. Additional safety tips are available at www.snow.dc.gov.