A Hint of Winter's Wonderland

"The roads were a mess at that hour," said Montgomery County schools spokesman Brian K. Edwards. "Student safety trumps everything."

Officials of D.C. public schools and school systems in the Maryland and Virginia suburbs came to the same conclusion. Many private schools, which track public school snow decisions, followed suit.

Utility officials reported few storm-related power outages. Roads seemed to be cleared fairly quickly. So were local airport runways. But the storm disrupted service for many airline passengers throughout the East Coast, including some at Reagan National and Dulles International airports, said Courtney Prebich of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority.

In Alexandria, much of the snow had melted to a soggy mush by about 9 a.m. Most streets were clear. So clear, in fact, that on DeWitt Avenue in the Del Ray neighborhood, one would-be snow-shoveler in sunglasses and yellow galoshes rode his bike to prospective clients, his red shovel jauntily resting on his shoulder.

Still, schools were closed. And that meant James Green and his wife had the typical morning discussion: whose job was more important, and who had to stay home with the kids, Brandon, 9 and Malcolm, 11.

"I didn't understand it," Green said of the decision to close schools with scant snow on the ground. "It ain't even worth it."

His wife won.

"I didn't really care," he said, smiling. "It meant I got to hang out with the boys."

The storm, flowing from the Ohio Valley, merged northeast of Washington with another that came from the Carolina coast. The combined system then moved up the Atlantic seaboard.

In the afternoon, Boston was hit by what officials called a "micro-blizzard" or "thunder snow," including a sudden whiteout with flashes of lightning.

New Yorkers woke to puffy snow, fluttering gently in the wind. Then rain and sleet fell on the six inches of accumulated snow. Before most folks had a chance to shovel their sidewalks and stairways, the city was covered in a messy, wet slosh.

By late afternoon, the sun had peeked out and a light wind sent mini-snowbombs hurtling off skyscrapers, annoying carriage-pulling horses and startling several pedestrians. "It looks good for the first half-hour," said Linda Swain 31, as she pulled cappuccinos at a midtown coffee shop. "Then it . . . gets all over your clothes and shoes."

Staff writers Lori Aratani, Tara Bahrampour, David A. Fahrenthold, Michelle Garcia, Hamil R. Harris, V. Dion Haynes, Carol Morello, William Wan, Martin Weil and Eric Weiss contributed. Garcia reported from New York, nd Fahrenthold reported from Boston.