D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said Sunday she has snow plows and street crews at the ready as the nation’s capital braces for its first major snowstorm in three years.
Ms. Bowser said workers are prepping the roads and city schools will be closed in anticipation of the snow that will begin coating the D.C. region Sunday night and continue throughout Monday.
The storm will be followed by relentlessly cold temperatures throughout the rest of the week, making for lingering ice and snow on neighborhood streets and sidewalks.
“Our priority, of course, is the safety of everyone in our city and getting the city clean and fully opened as soon as possible,” Ms. Bowser said. “If you don’t need to be on the roads tonight and tomorrow, stay home. Please stay off the roads.”
The District is part of a collection of cities — from Baltimore to Cincinnati — that are anticipating significant amounts of snow once the storm rolls in around 9 p.m. local time.
The National Weather Service for Baltimore-Washington said anywhere from five to 10 inches of powder will be dropped on the city and its surrounding suburbs once the pattern tapers off early Tuesday.
Sleet and freezing rain will be mixed in with the storm, the NWS said, especially along the Interstate 66 corridor that connects the District to the Virginia suburbs.
A deep freeze forecasted to grip much of the East Coast through the next week could complicate snow removal and road clearing efforts as well.
Some school districts in northern Virginia have already preemptively canceled class Monday, but the state’s largest system — Fairfax County — has yet to make the call as of Sunday afternoon.
None of the suburban Maryland school systems have said they will close down campuses at this time.
Baltimore County, as well as Harford and Cecil counties, have already canceled classes for Monday.
Both Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore declared states of emergency to surge resources to areas affected by the coming storm.
Elsewhere in the region, Philadelphia and parts of southern New Jersey are expected to get snow beginning Sunday night, but the accumulations won’t be as pronounced as in the D.C. area.
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.