There was definitely a lot of snow in Washington, DC as a result of the blizzard that hit the eastern US over the weekend, but just how much fell in the capital may never really be known.
The district’s official total was 17.8in (45.2cm), but according to the Washington Post, that number falls very short compared with other cities in the region. In New York, for example, more than 26in of snow was recorded.
So what went wrong in Washington? The problem, it turns out, was too much snow.
A small team of weather observers tasked with monitoring snowfall at Reagan national airport in Washington DC lost their snow-measuring device to the elements halfway through the blizzard.
Due to bad weather, the team was forced to abandon their snow board – the improvised device they used to tally totals – when it became buried under a drift.
National senior weather observer Mark Richards on Sunday stood by the accuracy of the reading, saying his team did the best it could under difficult conditions.
“We would like it to be as accurate as possible,” Richards said. “But it’s an inexact science. Everyone has to understand that measuring snow in a blizzard is a tough thing to do.”
Associated Press contributed to this report
