The storm, which began at dawn on Monday and lasted until noon, left a white trail throughout the region, with low temperatures.
After a week full of flight cancellations and a record increase in COVID-19 cases in the United States, A snowfall on Monday worsened the transportation chaos and forced the closure of federal services and schools in Washington and the surrounding area.
This Monday, Washington seemed like a picture: snowflakes covered the city and the most emblematic monuments and buildings with a white blanket, such as the Capitol dome and the White House.
It is expected that between 12 and more than 25 cm of snow will fall on the capital, warned the US meteorological services, which placed Washington and the neighboring state of Virginia under a winter storm alert until 4:00 p.m. (9:00 p.m. GMT).
“Prepare for snowy and slippery roads, which will make traffic difficult,” they added.
The winter storm that lashes much of the US East Coast, with strong winds accompanied by snowfall, it could cause “snow storms” and “floods”, said the meteorological services.
Power outages, schools closed
At least 395,000 homes were without power in Virginia and 67,000 in Maryland, with trees falling on the electric poles under the weight of the snow.
On Monday morning, the government announced the closure of federal services in the city of Washington, thus canceling the daily White House press conference and the only scheduled vote of the day in the Senate, postponed to Tuesday.
The city of Washington also ordered a stop to the circulation of buses and the closure of test centers for covid-19, as well as the suspension of the distribution of rapid detection tests.
Many Colleges also closed Monday in the Washington, Maryland and Virginia areas.
“If it is not absolutely necessary that you go out, stay home and do not go by car,” urged the mayor of Washington, Muriel Bowser, at a press conference. Many vehicles are stuck on the road by snow.
President Joe Biden himself suffered the consequences of the storm upon his return to the capital after a few days of vacation in Delaware.
Air Force One was stranded for 30 minutes on the runway while personnel cleared the snow; later the presidential convoy took considerably longer than usual to reach the White House.
Chaotic air traffic
The Snowstorm also accentuated the chaos that reigned in air traffic in the United States for weeks due to the outbreak of infections by the omicron variant.
The Ronald-Reagan National Airport and Washington-Dulles Airport, as well as Baltimore, they suffered many flight cancellations, according to the website Flightaware.
At around 1:00 p.m. (6:00 p.m. GMT), at least 2,700 domestic or international flights to or from the United States had been canceled, after 2,650 canceled on Sunday and 2,570 on Saturday, according to the same source.
This represents more than half of the nearly 4,300 flights canceled worldwide at the same time.
The cancellations are mainly due to the fact that the highly contagious omicron variant of the coronavirus prevents many pilots, flight attendants or ground personnel from going to work because they are sick or have been in contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19. (I)
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