Yesterday, the National Weather Service (NWS) increased chances of a storm to an “Enhanced Winter Storm Threat” for Saturday January 6th into Sunday, January 7th for much of the DC Metro area, including half of Montgomery County, Loudoun County, half of Howard County, Frederick County and more. The threat remains in the latest update from the NWS now that we are five days out.
Per the NWS, this means “increased potential of more significant travel impacts and more closures.” The other half of the DC Metro area is still in the “Slight Winter Storm Threat” category, which means “If threat materializes, may cause travel disruptions.”
Things have sped up just a little bit, which doesn’t help the chances of schools being affected on Monday, but all depends on what falls and how much of it. Right now it looks like the storm arrives Saturday afternoon and lasts through early Sunday. Things will continue to change and that will affect the timing and more importantly, what type of precipitation we see (snow, rain, or both).
Different model runs are showing different outcomes and we are still over 100 hours out on this storm. As much as we’d all like some certainty one way or the other, we just won’t get that. Everything remains on the table, from a mostly rain event to over six inches of snow and everything in between. We’ll continue to monitor and share the most up to date information.