Updated 3:25 p.m. Monday, Jan. 3
Alexandria City Public Schools followed Fairfax and Arlington County schools in closing for in-person learning on Tuesday, Jan. 4 to allow residents and snowplows to dig out from the largest snowstorm in a few years.
About 8 inches of snow (with slightly more south and west) fell in Alexandria and across the region Monday. Several thousand people were still without power Monday afternoon and many secondary roads had not yet seen a snowplow.
Temperatures Tuesday will struggle to reach the mid-30s under sunny skies. Temperatures will rise to about 40 on Wednesday under cloudy skies.
Click here to see an interactive map of snowfall totals from the National Weather Service.
National Weather Service
See an interactive version of this map here;
See photos of the storm from Alexandria residents and businesses here.
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Original story posted Sunday, Jan. 2:
Kids across Alexandria are excited! Parents: Not so much.
Alexandria City Public Schools students will return to school virtually on Monday, Jan. 3. ACPS made the announcement Sunday evening ahead of a predicted snowstorm that could dump several inches of wet, heavy snow across the Mid-Atlantic area.
Fairfax County Public Schools will also be closed Monday and there will be no virtual learning for students.
ACPS students will return to school virtually, since students took home their virtual learning devices at the start of winter break.
According to ACPS:
- Class times will include virtual teacher-led office hours and asynchronous instruction times. Asynchronous learning happens when students learn the same material but at different times and locations without live instruction.
- Students will have access to assignments, apps, and resources through Canvas and/or Clever.
- No new content will be taught.
Arlington County Public Schools are also closed Monday, and students will not be learning virtually there.
Rain is expected to turn to snow between 4 - 6 a.m., with snow continuing through noon Monday. Temperatures will be between 30 - 35 degrees.
"The most significant snowfall totals will be in the Appalachians and mid-Atlantic, where accumulations of 2 to 5 inches are possible. Some locations could see more than 5 inches if rain changes to snow and becomes heavy at times. Residents of the mid-Atlantic should prepare for travel impacts Monday morning, potentially including from Richmond, Virginia, to Washington, D.C. and Baltimore," according to The Weather Channel.
The National Weather Service says accumulations of 3 to 7 inches are possible.
The extra day out of buildings could help possibly mitigate the area's increasingly bad COVID-19 situation, giving travelers an extra day to find tests. The D.C. metro area is among the hardest hit in the United States right now. In Virginia, there are close to 2,500 people hospitalized who are positive for COVID-19, and 2,729 available hospital beds statewide. Fewer than 500 of those beds are ICU beds.
