Hoosier Posted September 20, 2019 Share Posted September 20, 2019 Hi y'all. I was wondering if you could suggest some places that are relatively close to DC (say within 30-45 minutes away) that do well in the snow department? I am totally unfamiliar with the area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psuhoffman Posted September 20, 2019 Share Posted September 20, 2019 3 minutes ago, Hoosier said: Hi y'all. I was wondering if you could suggest some places that are relatively close to DC (say within 30-45 minutes away) that do well in the snow department? I am totally unfamiliar with the area. Umm there are places in DC that aren’t within 30-45 minutes of DC during rush hour. 5 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psuhoffman Posted September 20, 2019 Share Posted September 20, 2019 4 minutes ago, Hoosier said: Hi y'all. I was wondering if you could suggest some places that are relatively close to DC (say within 30-45 minutes away) that do well in the snow department? I am totally unfamiliar with the area. But if you want a serious answer go northwest and totals rise gradually but then spike significantly near Damascus where you get an elevator rise along the southern end of Parr’s ridge. Damascus is the closest (relative) location with a significantly better snow climo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psuhoffman Posted September 20, 2019 Share Posted September 20, 2019 This isn’t perfectly accurate in every spot but it’s a good representation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NorthArlington101 Posted September 20, 2019 Share Posted September 20, 2019 Hi y'all. I was wondering if you could suggest some places that are relatively close to DC (say within 30-45 minutes away) that do well in the snow department? I am totally unfamiliar with the area.I think this is relatively obvious but you want to be outside the Beltway as much as possible and as NW as possible (towards elevation). For example, I lived in NW Arlington, and I consistently did better than DCA 15-20 minutes away on a god day) snowwise. NW DC also does pretty well. Rockville has been a good place to be for snow the past couple years, though with traffic that pushes the 40 minute rule. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WxUSAF Posted September 20, 2019 Share Posted September 20, 2019 Buffalo is a 45 minute flight away 2 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maestrobjwa Posted September 21, 2019 Share Posted September 21, 2019 2 hours ago, psuhoffman said: This isn’t perfectly accurate in every spot but it’s a good representation. 21 inches as an average for the corridor?? Must be skewed from 2009-10...lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fozz Posted September 21, 2019 Share Posted September 21, 2019 3 hours ago, Hoosier said: Hi y'all. I was wondering if you could suggest some places that are relatively close to DC (say within 30-45 minutes away) that do well in the snow department? I am totally unfamiliar with the area. NW Montgomery county is a good spot if you want to be relatively close to DC and also be on the winning side of many marginal storms. Clarksburg and Gaithersburg are pretty good spots for that. Damascus is a great spot for snow, but it's about an hour away, so long commutes would be the tradeoff. If you're looking at Virginia, then Reston, Sterling, or anywhere close to IAD would help. Even Tyson's Corner and Vienna do well in a lot of storms, though they are expensive and upscale. Here's a clearer version of the map psuhoffman posted. It's pretty accurate for the most part (though it's a bit old and based on 1971-2000 averages), but I'd say that in many of the north/west spots, it might even be slightly underdone (Damascus for example probably averages 30). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fozz Posted September 21, 2019 Share Posted September 21, 2019 58 minutes ago, Maestrobjwa said: 21 inches as an average for the corridor?? Must be skewed from 2009-10...lol Yes, and no. Those averages are from before 2000, though I don't think they've changed much. 18-22" average is pretty typical in the immediate metro areas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jebman Posted September 21, 2019 Share Posted September 21, 2019 Rockville MD. That place is a massive snow magnet. Every storm. They get the famed Rockville Deathband. Also, Stormtracker's 'Hood. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amped Posted September 21, 2019 Share Posted September 21, 2019 Parrs ridge. Most of Carol county. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nj2va Posted September 21, 2019 Share Posted September 21, 2019 Clarksburg seems to always maximize - though the thought of driving on 270 everyday would be enough to commit me to the insane asylum. 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eskimo Joe Posted September 21, 2019 Share Posted September 21, 2019 In DC, elevation and latitude are key. The area experiences several marginal events on the bookends of winter that make or break for your seasonal snowfall totals. Living north of Interstate 70 or west of Maryland Route 97 will put you in a good spot in Maryland. As others mentioned Damascus / Mt. Airy / Lisbon are always money. Going further out, Emmittsburg or Thurmont in Frederick County are always money. West of Dulles Airport in Virginia is also a good spot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jnis Posted September 21, 2019 Share Posted September 21, 2019 I live in Damascus, but I would not want to commute to DC from here. I would say Clarksburg or Urbana might be a good bet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattskiva Posted September 22, 2019 Share Posted September 22, 2019 23 hours ago, Eskimo Joe said: In DC, elevation and latitude are key. The area experiences several marginal events on the bookends of winter that make or break for your seasonal snowfall totals. Living north of Interstate 70 or west of Maryland Route 97 will put you in a good spot in Maryland. As others mentioned Damascus / Mt. Airy / Lisbon are always money. Going further out, Emmittsburg or Thurmont in Frederick County are always money. West of Dulles Airport in Virginia is also a good spot. Loudoun County in VA usually does well, similar to areas Maryland like Carroll. It varies some year to year, but I lived in Carroll County in the 90s and Loudoun for the last 12 years or so and found the performance on big storms and marginal events to be similar. I was here during the famed "snoquester" fail for DC and we did 8"+ while areas 15 miles east got rain. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lowershoresadness Posted September 22, 2019 Share Posted September 22, 2019 Canadian Embassy Penn Ave, NW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fozz Posted September 22, 2019 Share Posted September 22, 2019 Carroll county is usually a bit snowier than Loudoun, but in the immediate DC metro Loudoun is still hard to beat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoosier Posted September 22, 2019 Author Share Posted September 22, 2019 Thanks for the info. I average 3 feet where I live now, so would be looking at a downgrade. Ultimately it's going to take a lot to get me out of the Midwest (I like living here and most of my family is here) but it's serious enough to start thinking about this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
das Posted September 23, 2019 Share Posted September 23, 2019 23 hours ago, Hoosier said: Thanks for the info. I average 3 feet where I live now, so would be looking at a downgrade. Ultimately it's going to take a lot to get me out of the Midwest (I like living here and most of my family is here) but it's serious enough to start thinking about this. Clarksburg has been a good happy medium between the benefits of elevation and distance from the UHI of DC vs. commute times. For me, anyways. If you like big, synoptic storms, Clarksburg and the rest of Parr's ridge running NE through MD is not bad. For example, there have been two storms in Clarksburg just in the last decade that have exceeded the largest storm in Indiana history (26" in St. Josephs County in 2011) with that number increasing to 4 in places 10-20 miles NE up Parr's ridge. Those places NE tend to put you away from reasonable commute times to DC. For Clarksburg context, In the last decade, there were those two 26"+ storms (33.6" and 28.0") but the numbers for significant but not-as-large storms increase to 3 storms of 20+", 5 storms of 15+" and 7 storms of 12+" in the last decade. Not bad for what is effectively the south. Also, for context regarding commute times; if I leave my house at 6am, I get to work a block west of the White House in 40-42 minutes. If I leave at 6:15am, it can take 1.5 hours. If I leave at 6:30am, it can take two hours. Big incentive to get out the door in the morning. That's for like 35 of the 52 weeks of the year. The others, (summer, holiday weeks, etc...) are much more reasonable. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Winter Wizard Posted September 24, 2019 Share Posted September 24, 2019 Gaithersburg is probably the ideal spot if you want convenience to DC. As was mentioned before, the farther north and west you get from DC and the Beltway, the better you do especially in marginal setups. This is the farthest northwest spot you can go while still being close to the Metro (Shady Grove on the red line). It's also considerably cheaper than NoVa or anywhere inside the Beltway. This area also jackpotted during the 2016 Blizzard with just under 40 (!) inches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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