The first snow of the season, and the heaviest December snow in D.C. in years, turned Washington white on Friday, proving scenic and a bit slippery, although in truth it seemed fairly sparse.
Although in many places it amounted to little more than an inch, and a relatively dry inch as well, complaints of slippery roads were heard, and more slipperiness was expected after dark when roads stayed wet and temperatures fell.
Although Friday’s snow was nobody’s blizzard, its novelty attracted attention. Its identity as first of this season automatically raised it to a major source of public interest in a chronically snow-wary capital.
It was not without its achievements. According to The Washington Post’s Capital Weather Gang, it was in itself the most snow here in any December since 2017. Given the fast pace of modern life, such a distinction could be regarded as almost historic.
It was scenic. Snow, after all, possesses a simplifying effect, reducing complex matters, visually at least, to questions of black and white.
Strips of white snow ran along black tree branches, tracing their curves and undulations, from wide to narrow, thick to thin, and offering a silent study in nature’s contrasts.
Snow accumulated with relative ease, as even light snow does, on lawns and similarly unpaved surfaces. The slightest of high spots, or rough patches, a ridge of grass here or there, thrust above the thin blanket, contrasting darkly and enhancing the monochrome credentials of the day.
After weeks and months of dry weather, interspersed with occasional showers, individual flakes became objects of interest that drew the eye.
In the early morning, in the hours before dawn, it seemed at first that the air was slowly turning into a collection of tiny crystals. They melted on the skin and felt wet to the touch, but did not accumulate.
Gradually, through the gray and dimly overcast daylight hours, flakes of greater size began to fall and produce their whitening effect. They seemed to assume a variety of sizes, with some scarcely visible, while others matched the sizes and shapes that pour from a box of breakfast cereal.
Some fell fast, with seeming intensity of purpose, but others drifted downward at a leisurely pace, seemingly in defiance of gravity.
Amateur snowflake analysts could readily describe Friday’s snow in Washington as a dry sort, which created copious flakes without a great quantity of moisture to work with.
In the roughest of approximations an inch of rain is often equated to about 10 inches of snow.
By that measure, Friday’s snow might have been the equivalent of about a tenth of an inch of rain. Instead, it was only about half that, and was produced by a twentieth of an inch worth of liquid moisture.
Meanwhile, the snow, with its intriguing visual aspects and effects, prevented Friday from fully falling prey to its gloomy ingredients.
In the afternoon, temperatures resided at a level two degrees below freezing. The sky was constantly gray, in a way that seemed to countenance no appeal. The sun set before 5 p.m.
Much more of an exhibit of Washington in winter could hardly be asked.
But the city’s first snowfall of the season, while managing to cover a lot of ground, and likely to freeze into slick spots, seemed yet to attain a truly daunting depth. And, as snow so often is, it was scenic.
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