WASHINGTON — (CNN) Washington D.C. got sucker punched.
While the nation’s capital was focused squarely on an epic weekend blizzard, a relatively light dusting left the metropolitan area a slippery mess.
With less than an inch of snow forecast, most roads were left untreated.
Virginia State Police untangled accidents by the dozens Wednesday evening. An officer was hurt in one of the crashes. One person was killed.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser asked everyone to stay off the roads so crew could begin to treat them. But the damage was done.
Commutes home turned into hours-long affairs. Many drivers didn’t get home until after midnight.
Even the commander in chief had to reckon with the wintry mix. Video shows President Barack Obama’s motorcade using hazard lights Wednesday as it made its slippery way from Joint Base Andrews to the White House. He was unable to fly on Marine One because of the weather.
Round two
But this was just a warm-up act. The real show begins Friday
One nasty snowstorm looks to be on the way with up to a couple of feet of snow, falling on the Washington area.
“It’s not out of the question that some localized areas receive over 2 feet of fresh snow,” according to CNN meteorologist Taylor Ward.
And one more thing: They’ll be whipped by 50-60 mph winds.
“That will create blizzard conditions, as well as coastal storm surge, erosion, and flooding,” Ward said.
Preparation is everything
Heaters, shovels, and sleds flew off the shelves at Strosniders Hardware in Silver Spring, Maryland. Ice melt chemical? Gone too.
“They know (the storm is) coming,” manager Roy Washington told CNN affiliate WJLA. “They hear the forecast, and they want to be prepared for it.”
Grocery stores got slammed as well. The beer, bread and milk aisles are always cleaned out early.
Ready the plows
Communities along the East Coast were preparing for the wintry onslaught, piling up salt and positioning snow plows.
But roads weren’t the only worry.
“If this is a blizzard and we have sustained winds and people lose power and it is cold over a sustained period of time, that would be my biggest concern,” Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said.
Nearly 2 feet of snow fell in February 2010’s “Snowmaggedon” storm, which cut power to hundreds of thousands in the region.
One for the record books?
This weekend’s storm could be one of historic proportions, but snow accumulations in the capital would have to top 28 inches.
That would exceed the calamitous “Knickerbocker Storm” of 1922, which dumped 28 inches and killed nearly 100 people when the roof of a theater by that name collapsed under the weight of the snow.
Tens of millions of East Coast residents are in the storm’s path.
Mid-Atlantic is the target
While Washington appears to be in the storm’s bulls eye, most of the Mid-Atlantic states — and a few points west — will take a hit from the storm system.
“The potential exists for a swath of 1-2 feet from eastern Kentucky across West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland and into southern Pennsylvania and New Jersey,” Ward said.
It is less certain whether New York City, Philadelphia and Boston will see heavy snowfall. Depending on which way the storm goes, 2-15 inches are possible.
Also, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kentucky and North Carolina will see ice as the storm moves east Thursday into Friday.
Talk of a possible blizzard came on the same day the federal government reported that 2015 was the Earth’s warmest since record-keeping began in 1880. But big snows can occur even in the warmest of years.
Despite the snowiest winter on record for Boston, the state of Massachusetts still ended 2015 with temperatures far above average.
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