Groundskeepers Abdenbi Bouzhar, left, and Joel Morales shovel snow off a walkway at the Asbury Building. The two worked to clear pathways before freezing rain arrived later in the evening.
Snow began to fall on early Sunday morning in Washington, blanketing the city with powder and shutting down American University for several days.
By the afternoon, snow remained on Massachusetts Avenue, Nebraska Avenue and the Quad. Flakes had given way to sleet. The university closed for the day at 8:00 a.m. and for Monday at 1:47 p.m., according to a memo from Emergency Preparedness. The next day, it announced it would close for Tuesday as well.
Areas close to AU received about five inches of snow by 9:00 a.m., according to a WTOP reporter who measured the covering in nearby Chevy Chase, Md. The snowstorm covered parts of the United States from Arizona to Maine and was the largest in five years for parts of the Northeast, according to Accuweather.
Still, AU students and residents of Northwest Washington came out to enjoy the winter weather, converging on the university’s campus and flooding out to nearby parks. Meanwhile, the university’s staff and neighbors labored to clear the snow before the sleet turned into freezing rain.
Freezing rain entered Washington around 5:00 p.m., according to the Washington Post. According to a post on X by weather reporters Capital Weather Gang, freezing rain freezes to surfaces on contact and can coat objects such as power lines — which could lead to power outages.
Snow blankets the statue of General Artemas Ward in Ward Circle on early Sunday morning.A solitary car drives down Massachusetts Avenue in the snow on early Sunday morning.11-year-old Oliver sleds face-first downhill at Battery Kemble Park.AU students and local children climbed the hill at Wesley Theological Seminary for sledding.Students pose with improvised sleds on their way to use them at Turtle Park.Students trade snowballs in the Woods-Brown Amphitheater. The snow was powdery and difficult to pack tightly.First-year Dylan Sapienza grimaces after throwing an incomplete pass in a game of tackle football on the Quad.Seniors Sky Chaus, left, and Eduardo Gomez Horta attempt to place a snow boulder on top of their snowman at Battery Kemble Park.Jimmy McMillan laughs while sprinkling ice melt onto a walkway at the Berkshire Apartments, which houses many AU students, on Massachusetts Avenue.A grounds worker poses while clearing snow near Bender Library.Four-year-old Evaluna Matos hurls snow at her aunt, Brenny Cheng, on Massachusetts Avenue.Bjørnar Lassen and his daughter Eleanora, 9, of Wesley Heights, construct a snowman near Horace Mann Elementary School. Bjørnar, from Norway, said the snowfall is comparable to one he might see in a day in his homeland.
Ben Ackman's Photography Website 