Love this storm. Early season, Christmastime, harbinger, pure snow none of this mixing nonsense we typically deal with or almost deal with in big storms (tho that could be said for practically the entire season's storms), fast start and a really exceptional pivot Saturday afternoon. I was in Upper Marlboro and the snow came down thru 9pm Sat. 18-21" or so altogether. I'd rank '09 second on my biggies list of the ones I've seen (all since '96; I was born in '85). Of the two standard-bearers that winter, I have to give the slimmest of edges to Feb. 5-6 for several reasons: heaviest snow I've ever seen falling from 8pm to 2am; the incredible totals, 30"+, many quite close to and even in the cities; the gravity wave; the immediate tracking of another storm within a few days of this one, eliminating post-HECS idleness and depression; among others. I did experience a few nervous hours overnight from about 2am-5am as the snow tapered where I was in NE D.C., obsessing over radar as the dry slot approached looking like it meant serious business, then relief when back building and the pivot took. Still, appreciable damage had definitely been done: I would measure 21-24.5", basically in line with reports from across the city, DCA's tarmac and low lying, reclaimed swampland neighborhoods immediately adjacent to rivers notwithstanding. Locales not far away, NE and NNE including Beltsville, Laurel, Crofton and on up through Columbia and Elkridge, narrowly missed the tapering that went on closer to the slot and found themselves forming a noticeable little jackpot area nearby, that I missed. But that's pretty much it as far as complaints go.
Another reason I place Feb. 5-6 above all other comers, apart from the synoptic stuff, is because I really, really savored seeing New York --and specifically New York-- having, finally, failed while we did especially well. The last time was Jan. 2000. It hardly made up for our numerous Miller B fails while they've come out time and again like feasting fat rats for a decade plus. And we soon paid a terrible price with a revolutionary and innovative, overall spectacular debacle at Boxing Day later on the same year. Even still, brief as it was, the reversal of fortune was refreshing, rewarding and frequently hilarious, and in the end CPK recorded like 50" on the season anyway so it wasn't anything close to a shutout.
Hey-- Who here remembers mid-Atlantic trolls making posts about "rain in downtown DC" in the NYC forum the evening of the 5th?? Lol!!!