That's how much snow covers Washington, D.C., right now:
A major storm that broke all records for a December snowfall buried the Washington area Saturday, forcing authorities to suspend public transportation, declare a state of emergency and plead with residents to stay home.
Hundreds of airline flights were canceled, Metro stopped running trains to aboveground stations and shopping malls closed early because few customers could navigate treacherous roads to get there on the last weekend before Christmas.
But at 10 p.m. Saturday, it appeared that the fury of the great storm might be fading into flurries. Over the next two hours, "any additional accumulation will be light," the National Weather Service said.
Yet, it will be days before things return to normal. Metro said the suspension of bus and aboveground rail service, which went into effect Saturday, would continue Sunday morning when the system reopened.
At the snowstorm's peak in the afternoon, flakes fell at the rate of two inches an hour. Some areas, particularly in Southern Maryland, experienced wind gusts up to 64 km/h. The total measured snowfall at Reagan Airport at 8:58 p.m. was 41.4 cm, but it was as high as 58 cm elsewhere in the region. That would be more snow in a 24-hour period than the region typically gets in an entire winter. According to Weather Service statistics, the storm ranked among the biggest snowfalls in local history.
National Airport has reopened, which is helpful because in half an hour I'm heading over to O'Hare to get there. Diane and Parker stayed another night in Petersburg, Va.; we all hope they get up to Washington by the time my flight arrives. I-95 looks clear on the many traffic cameras set up along the way, but the streets inside the District may not be.
What fun. It was going to be a quick long weekend trip, too...