Winter came to Washington two years late — and some still weren’t ready for it.
This week, an arctic chill has descended on the region, sending temperatures plunging to daytime highs last seen in January — 2011.
The latest: Capital Weather Gang
Get current conditions and the forecast for the region, and tips for how to prepare.
With the low temperatures came the kind of crises that hadn’t happened in months — homeless shelters filled up, a Metro rail broke, pipes burst, and a worker on a cellphone tower was stuck nearly 200 feet above the ground, too cold to make his way down. (He was rescued by a co-worker).
Everyone was as confused as the daffodils that had bloomed early and now lay in tiny yellow puddles, frozen overnight. It has been unseasonably warm for so long that people didn’t know exactly what to do. Some dug out faux furs and gloves long stored away.
Others underdressed: Children went off to the school bus in thin hoodies. Flip-flops were spotted at the inauguration Monday.
“People are kind of freakin’ out,” said lawyer Gabrielle Petersen, 31, an Arlington County resident who was waiting for her luncheon burrito along 15th Street NW on Wednesday afternoon. “It was really warm for a couple of years, and people have forgotten how it’s supposed to get cold in winter.”
True, the sages at The Washington Post’s Capital Weather Gang note that even in the warmest of winters the region will get some period of freezing weather, although the last time the area had a streak of days with highs of 29 degrees or lower happened over two days in January 2010, according to the Gang’s Jason Samenow. Last year was the warmest on record in the District and the Lower 48 states.
The forecast for this week calls for daytime temperatures to stay in the high 20s through at least Friday, when there is also a 60 percent chance of snow, with some night temperatures falling into the teens.
Across the region, homeless shelters were filling to capacity and beyond as the cold descended. In the District, the family homeless shelter at the old D.C. General Hospital was at its limit with 271 families, and two more families were put up in nearby hotels.
In Arlington, the A-Span emergency homeless shelter in the Courthouse area also was above capacity. Eleven people were sent to a shelter in neighboring Fairfax County.
Spots across the city and region where the homeless congregate were suddenly empty. But as icicles clung to the stone wall at the railroad bridge at K and Second streets NE, one woman lay huddled under a gray blanket, shivering.
“I’m doing okay,” she insisted, her hands shaking as she lay beside a cane and a plastic bag full of snacks. “As long as I can stay under my blanket.” She declined to give her name.
At a small park in the 1100 block of New York Avenue NW, Thomas A. Keiper refused Wednesday night to go to a warmer place. He lay on the ground, one blanket under him, and two over him. He accepted the aid from a shelter van, but was resolute in going it alone.
Shelters “are for dope addicts and criminals,” he said. I deserve a home.”
Elsewhere, the sudden plunge in temperatures left water utilities bracing for a flurry of water main breaks. Sudden changes in water temperature cause old, brittle pipes to weaken as they expand and contract.
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