President's Day: Notorious for Storms!

Old and young alike may have faint or even vivid memories of President's Days past... for there have been a few memorable snowstorms during the middle of February.

There are actually two "big" cases of east coast snowstorms that have fallen on this holiday. The first in 1979 during February 18-20, and the second more recently in 2003 on February 15-18. I find it very ironic and somewhat eerie that during both of these storms, some of the hardest hit areas were very close to where our president resides today, Washington D.C.!

The map at left shows you snowfall totals after the PDII storm (President's Day 2) The higher elevations in western Maryland were indeed the hardest hit, but D.C. still received over 2 feet!

With close analysis, our weather situation the past few days and especially today is quite similar in respects to the setup during 2003. The difference? As has been the case quite often this year, the main low pressure center has taken too far of a track to the west. Also, there was not a well defined high pressure area situated in northern Canada, which acts as the cold "fuel" for the storm. So we'll stay with rain and only a few snowflakes for President's Day 2008.