It originated in Canada, gathering strength before it dived southeast. Snow fell from Minnesota and Illinois eastward. After passing over the mid-Atlantic, it headed back north. Temperatures hovered in the 20s through the day.
The snowfall in the District, about four inches, fell short of the five to nine inches that forecasters had predicted. Jim Lee, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said that although the District got less than expected, several places in Maryland had six or more inches. "You're talking tens of miles between Glen Burnie having seven inches and the District having four," he said.
Keith Bloom goes airborne with his son, Nicolas, on the George Washington Masonic Memorial hill in Alexandria.
(John Mcdonnell -- The Washington Post)
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Across the region, scores of events were canceled.
Montgomery was one of the few jurisdictions that kept its public buildings open yesterday morning, deciding to cancel events and close after 1 p.m. A tsunami charity event, a high school concert, several athletic tournaments and several parties ringing in the lunar new year had to be nixed, said Ginny Gong, director of the county's office of community use of public buildings.
Some people who dared to step out yesterday had little choice.
"My wife owns a bakery, and she has to deliver a wedding cake today," David Goldman, 43, said as he bought windshield-washer fluid at an Exxon gas station in Gaithersburg.
Along Route 355 in Rockville, many stores were closed. At Wintergreen Plaza, only a video store was busy with customers stocking up on entertainment.
At BWI Airport, where cancellations began appearing on the electronic departure boards by noon, a stranded high school marching band from Nevada turned the ticketing area near American Airlines into an encampment. The 134-member McQueen High School band from Reno and their 55 chaperones came to Washington to perform in the inaugural parade. They had flights on three carriers, but United, American and Frontier all canceled them.
Flutist Amanda Tipton, 15, said the delays were fine with her. The trip "was so worth it," walking down Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House, she said.
Elsewhere, parents braved slippery roads to take children to the Tollefson swimming stroke-and-instruction clinic, held at the Georgetown Preparatory School pool. Fourteen swimmers, instead of the usual 75, showed up, said John Tollefson, 62, who runs the program.
"We came because we could sled and swim," said Jeanne Mandelblatt, 53, of Garrett Park, who accompanied her son, Colin.
Indeed, many residents and visitors were enchanted by the sight of Washington covered with snow, as if it were a giant snowball.
The snow was everywhere yesterday -- on the barricades protecting government buildings and on the port-a-potties left over from inauguration festivities. Streets throughout the District were streaked with brown, where drivers had converted three lanes to two to avoid the heaps of snow piled up along the sides. Icy windshields peeked out from cars carrying several inches of snow on their hoods, their roofs, sometimes enough on the rear bumpers to obstruct the rear lights.
Yesterday was the first time Jenny Chan, 32, had seen snow. "It's very beautiful," said Chan, a Singapore native who is studying international relations at Johns Hopkins University. "But it's much colder than it looks."
Mostly, though, yesterday was about children enjoying the snow and parents relieved that the snowfall came on a weekend.
In the Rosemont section of Alexandria, some teenagers tried to use a skateboard ramp as a launch for their sleds and snowboards. They ended up at a hill on Junior Street.
"We don't need more snow, we need a bigger hill," said Julian van Giessen, 14.
Staff writers Karlyn Barker, Ashley Halsey, Hamil R. Harris, Lindsay Layton, Ylan Q. Mui, Joshua Partlow, Arthur Santana, Lena H. Sun, Lila de Tantillo, Martin Weil and Clarence Williams contributed to this report.
