Where does the late January blizzard rank on your (post-January '00) list?

[Ger]

I limited the years to post-2000 (inc. 2000) so as many people as possible can participate using the same recent generation of storms.

Before the blizzard my list went like this:

•12/09 (for several reasons; tho at 21" was NOT my biggest snow)

•02/10 (tie w 01/16 for biggest snowfall ~26")

•PDII (~22 and sleet)

•01/00 (~17 and the shock factor)

•02/10 II (~14" and true blizzard conditions, whiteouts, the surprise factor having gone to bed the night of 2/9 convinced it was a typical Miller B fail, snow on snow on snow)

•02/12-13/14 (~12" pure powder, a first of that magnitude in a long time, then the changeover to IP and rain, dry slot, couple hours and a few inches of heavy wet snow as the deform moved thru)

Honorable mentions 02/06 the best part of which I slept thru after being frustrated with non sticking moderate snow that evening before the bands blew up overnight and St Patrick's for time of year and depth

NOW everyone moves down a notch as 01/16 takes third place. It virtually tied 02/10 for biggest at about ~24/25" and was all snow and exciting if predictable to track. Downsides how quickly it was gone, the dry slotting issue from midmorning thru early/mid afternoon, and I felt like the deform band that moved thru after the dry slot was relatively speaking of course a little bit lame. More of an exiting storm band than a true deform band. Tho it was less snow overall 12/09 was more satisfying to watch on radar with the dry slot approaching from the south and stalling, and then the decisive pivot that really made for an incredible Noon-7pm on the 19th.

[WEATHER53]

First in accumulation but tied for second in overall majesty

[GATECH]

Been thinking about this as well, here is my list:

1&2: Feb 2010 dual storms. The first one gave me 24 inches of heavy wet snow that brought down trees and our power. When my power went out that night I thought I was done. Was actually thinking of that I would have to burn our fence in the fire place to stay warm. By some grace of God dominion power got the power back on in under 2 hours. With a 1.5 year old kid, was the first time I was kinda scared in a snowstorm. I also had to shovel off my flat roof on my addition, the roof was actually starting to bow. The second snow gave me 12 inches in a true blizzard, plus the house actually shook from the wind, it had't done that since Hirricane Isabelle.

#3 January 22 2016: 24 inches of snow, tied for my tops. Snow was champaign powder, now worries of downed trees or power outage. Also verified blizzard conditions, probably longer than #2. Had probably 5 hours of almost 0 vis on sat afternoon. The drifting was special, had 4 ft drifts along my fence. Awesome storm but never felt I would be housebound for a week, VDOT did a nice job plowing out hood.

#4 Dec 2009: HECS for christmas! 19 inches.

#5 pd3 (February 2003). Special one for me, was actually up in Canaan valley for the start of that one, at a friends cabin. Awesome drive up there they must of already had like 80 inches of snow that year, drove up that Friday and we drove through canyons of snow from previous snows. It snowed about 8 inches Friday night, as an appetizer. Next morning (sat) we were watching tv, the weather scrawl on the bottom was calling for 50 to 80 inches of snow....I really wanted to stay but had a friend that was starting a new job on Tuesday and didn't want to be stuck in WV for a week and have to be rescued by the national guard (besides we would have run out of beer). We evacuated back to DC, got there sat pm just in time for the snow to start there. Would have ranked higher but all the GD sleet kept totals down (lives on the Hill for that one).

#6. Jan 25 2000....surprise! Lived in centreville, va for that one, only about 12 inches but was fun because of the surprise factor and was my first 12in snowstorm in DC.