And you thought that was winter? The solstice comes Monday.

With most of the Washington area covered with record amounts of snow, Monday appears to be one of the most appropriately wintry days for marking the winter solstice.

The solstice, which signals the arrival of the season, occurs here at 12:47 p.m., according to data from the U.S. Naval Observatory.

This year the solstice, the shortest day of the year, comes as the region for miles around is struggling to throw off one of the heaviest blankets of snow ever measured here.

The snowfall set a record for a December storm at all three of the airports in the Washington region: Reagan National, Dulles International and Baltimore-Washington International Marshall.

In addition, the 15 inches measured at National on Saturday was the most for any December day. The single-day December record had been 11.5 inches, set 77 years ago, the National Weather Service said.

The Weather Service also said Saturday's 15 inches at National was the third-largest snowfall measured on a single calendar day in any month since the keeping of such records began in Washington in 1884.

Many snowfalls occur over a two- or three-day period. Even in this category, the weekend's snow occupies a prominent place.

The total snowfall Friday and Saturday amounted to 16.4 inches, the Weather Service said. That makes it the sixth-heaviest two-day snowfall in the city's weather history.

It falls just short of the memorable Presidents' Day storm of 2003 but ahead of an also memorable January 1996 storm.

Combined with an earlier 0.2 inch of snow, the storm brings the month's total to 16.6 inches. That, the Weather Service said, sets the record for Washington's snowiest December.