Officials Say Hands Were Tied By Storm

Buck, the Maryland highway official, said: "There is no magical solution we can put down prior to a snowstorm happening that can completely prevent snow from sticking to a frozen surface."

The District's transportation director, Emeka C. Moneme, said that the city consults a variety of weather forecasts and that officials believed that only a half-inch to an inch of snow would fall. He said forecasts indicated only a 20 percent chance that the city would receive two inches.

Referring to the uncertainty of weather forecasting, he quipped: "From now on, I'm going to call my parents in Ohio, because whatever they get, we get 12 hours later."

As the snowfall exceeded expectations, the D.C. department needed more personnel and "was slower in getting to the residential streets than we wanted to be," Moneme said. Some residential streets were not plowed or salted overnight or early yesterday, leaving drivers slipping and sliding.

According to the National Weather Service, the Washington region received 1.5 to 4.5 inches of snow, with up to 3 inches in some parts of Northwest Washington, 3.6 inches in Reston and 4.5 inches in Olney.

Jim Lee, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, disputed the District's account. He said an advisory issued more than 24 hours before the first flake fell called for one to two inches of snow. At 2:49 a.m. Wednesday, the service updated its forecast to extend the duration of the storm to 8 p.m. And at 9:44 a.m. Wednesday, it raised the predicted accumulation totals to one to three inches for most of the region, with as much as two to four inches in the northern suburbs.

Flurries were reported at Reagan National Airport at 6:30 a.m. Wednesday. Even though the first measurable accumulation was not recorded until between 10 and 11 a.m. at the airport, Lee said, "the flurries became ice when they hit, and that caused traffic delays."

Staff writers Michael Laris and Nikita Stewart and researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.