real

Weird. Seeing reports on Twitter of “heavy sleet” already in Rockville. But still Light snow downtown

"Way more intense?" There are literally just flurries in downtown, 3 miles away from SE

Flurries Downtown DC. Sticking to car windshields instantly as it falls, but still not robust enough to be considered even light snow.

It’s basically a nice outdoor mall, with new apartment communities built around it. Also, a lot of diversity there, by Richmond standards. Think Columbia Maryland

And scary, because most storms this winter seem to move through even quicker than had been modeled. Even that rain event two nights ago, was here and gone in just a few hours.

I remember this storm. I think I went to bed in DC expecting to wake up to a lot of snow. I woke, and thought, "Yes, there is a lot of snow on the roads.' But as I left for work or wherever, I realized I was driving though inches and inches of unplowed sleet on DC city streets. It was nasty. I think I went of out of town, but recall then hearing stories of how it all froze solid that night -- before DC could plow the sleet away -- and everything turned into an inches-thick coat of solid ice on DC streets, for days.

Radar has filled in nicely southwest of DC, which looks like should assure this will continue until after sunset when it should quickly get very icy

Sleet here in Downtown DC too -- Maybe just in time... https://twitter.com/dcfireems/status/1360681072527368195?s=20

I think I saw on Twitter this is the first ISW in DC in a dozen years.

That is weird, because every car parked in the lowlands of DC is encased in thick ice.

It actually seems to be getting colder in downtown. Ice building up even on mulch and sidewalks that were just wet this morning are getting icy. If this continues into evening, could be really nasty here

Near Downtown DC, it seems to be accretion on some trees, but not on other trees, even in some cases right next to each other. I find this to be unusual.

Legit freezing rain near Downtown DC. Cars, all metal objects and unsalted brick sidewalks coated in ice. Street and salted-sidewalks seem just wet.

Steady light snow in Downtown DC. -- First hints of becoming a car topper. (Edit: Radar shows a very small band of snow, moving north to south through the east side of DC)

Not sure the temperature but misty drizzle and extremely light snow flakes in DC.

The thing I thought that was odd about the LWX Watch was where it said "Travel could become nearly impossible." -- -- That is pretty harsh wording, usually only reserved for the biggest and most troublesome events. And modern ice storms around here rarely seem to cause too much havoc on major interstates, especially when forecast ahead of time considering the amount of pre treating and salting that occurs now.

Yea, but even among those 5 events, the only one that would really been that big of storm, if i recall correctly, is the two-day Miller B two weeks ago that hit NYC. Ji has been correct. Most things seem to have also trended drier, faster, etc, as they have approached this region this winter. And many of these events were not even that close to stay all-snow, despite what the models suggested was possible a few days ahead of time. . I could live with missing a storm because you live in the city and the snow/rain line sets up in Fairfax... But most of these storms have been an all-encompassing screw job for the entire close-in DC region, and it all just seems to fall apart on approach.

DC local news says light accumulations along 270 corridor start around Germantown and Frederick, where they are doing live shots, from, has 1 inch on the ground

Stating to remind me of the UHI effect I saw a few times in NYC. There have been times in very marginal storms where there was no accumulation at all in Times Square/Midtown, but if you just walked 5 blocks west to 10th or 11th Ave near the Hudson, you would find 3 or 4 inches of snow had fallen..

Light Rain/snow mix in DC lowland neighborhoods near Downtown

Going to be hard to keep people in DC and NOVA invested in this winter much longer.. This was supposed to be the one storm that was A) Easy to track. B ) Overrunning and hard to miss us C ) Cold and all snow D) Depending on model runs, wedged between jackpot just north or a jackpot just south, so in a good position. Yet, it looks like we are going to still fail.

And seasonal trend for I-95 seems to be the mix line always creeps a bit farther north, and faster, than the models suggest... (And that also includes Philadelphia and New York areas during their storms).

I am not saying it won't stick, but one key of a good DC snow is at some point you need at least some good rates, or you tend to lose almost as much as you are gaining, especially if this is broken up over two daylight cycles. Temperatures may help this time, but temperatures usually end up warmer than modeled in the city, absent at least some good rates at some point during the "storm"

Part of the issue is also the duration, and we are talking about 2 waves over 2 days. Maybe the cold this time will work a bit more magic than past storms. But even in D.C and close-in suburbs, I don't know how you can feel that confident that .6 of precip over two days is really going to get the job done, when you consider how dense environments/pavement have a tendency to eat away at snow, even with below-freezing temperatures. A 2 to 4 inch snow over two days could easily really end being a very minor event, when you see what remains.

DC has been on the losing end of modeled gradients like that all winter, so highly doubt many in the city would be comfortable with a GFS-like solution, if it holds. Thankfully, Euro and Nam look farther south