As the forecast of winter weather looms, WTOP's Dave Dildine highlights the most-memorable snowstorms to strike the D.C. region during the month of March.
A late-season snowfall coats blooming cherry trees in Northwest Washington on March 25, 2014. Several late snowstorms produced more than a foot of snow that month, leading to one of the snowiest Marches in more than 50 years. The season culminated with a light snowfall on March 25, dusting budding cherry trees near the Tidal Basin. Snow is in the forecast again this weekend.
(WTOP/Dave Dildine)
WTOP/Dave Dildine
Allen and Lauren Haywood, top, both of Washington, slide down the snow-covered grounds of he Capitol, March 14, 1993. At right is Aubrey Parsons of Washington. A severe winter storm dumped around a foot of snow on D.C.
(AP Photo/Mark Wilson)
AP Photo/Mark Wilson
A lone skier crosses the Mall in front of the Washington Monument, March 14, 1993. Much of downtown Washington was deserted that morning as they city began to recover from one of the biggest winter storms in recent years.
(AP Photo/Doug Mills)
AP Photo/Doug Mills
A line of trucks with snow plows push snow across the Memorial Bridge heading from Washington into Arlington, Virginia, as snow fell in the Washington area, March 13, 1993. The major storm battered the area, snarling roads and closing museums.
(AP Photo/Mark Wilson)
AP Photo/Mark Wilson
A cyclist makes his way across a New York street March 13, 1993. The storm that dumped 13.9 inches of snow at Dulles International Airport enveloped the eastern third of the country.
(AP Photo/Robert Clark)
AP Photo/Robert Clark
A pedestrian walks through the snow March 13, 1993, in Atlanta. Interstate signs were knocked down by the windy conditions. That snowstorm, which dumped 13.9 inches of snow at Dulles International Airport, enveloped the eastern third of the country.
(AP Photo/Curtis Compton)
AP Photo/Curtis Compton
Washington, D.C. Bus going through the snow near Connecticut Avenue and Chevy Chase Circle in March 1942.
Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <https://www.loc.gov/item/fsa1998022910/PP/>.
(John Ferrell/Office of War Information Photograph Collection, Library of Congress)
John Ferrell/Office of War Information Photograph Collection, Library of Congress
WASHINGTON — A powerful nor’easter could bring snow and high winds to the D.C. region on the 24th anniversary of one of the strongest East Coast cyclones in modern memory.
On March 13, 1993, blizzard conditions enveloped the eastern third of the country, setting all-time low-pressure, low-temperature and snowfall records from Florida to New England. Near D.C., winds gusted over 40 mph as lightning flickered in the sky.
By the following morning, the 1993 Superstorm had produced 13.9 inches of snow at Dulles International Airport. Although heavy snow changed to rain for a time near the District, a 6.5 inch accumulation was measured at Reagan National Airport by March 14.
Other March snowstorms have a strong foothold in the history books as well.
A mammoth snowstorm that struck the region over a century ago still holds the record for the highest March snowfall tally in D.C. That storm produced a foot of snow in the city March 27 to 28, 1891.
The Palm Sunday snowstorm of 1942 brought the region’s second-largest March snowfall on record. On March 29 of that year, 11.5 inches was measured at Reagan National. The storm produced over 2 feet of snow in parts of Maryland and northwestern Virginia. That snowstorm also ranks as Baltimore’s seventh-largest storm on record; 22 inches was measured.
Several heavy snowfalls buried D.C. in March 1960, including a March 3 storm that produced 7.1 inches.
And on March 9, 1999, a snowstorm produced 8 to 12 inches of snow during the afternoon commute, crippling automobile traffic throughout the metro area.
More recently, a mid-March snowfall in 2014 dropped 7.2 inches of powder on Reagan National and 11.1 on Dulles.
Roughly a year later, on March 5, 2015, a snowstorm brought 5 to 10 inches across the region.
A native to the Washington area, Dave Dildine is no stranger to the region's complex traffic and weather patterns. Dave joined WTOP in 2010 when the station launched its very own in-house traffic service. You can hear him "on the 8s and when it breaks" from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays.
