**DC Mayor Muriel Bowser has declared a snow emergency for the district.

[spooky3]

3. As someone who lived much of my life in the midwest, but now lives in metro DC, I disagree

with this point of view, for several reasons. I hear it expressed frequently by people who have not lived in both places. It comes across as condescending and insulting.

First, DC's metro area for weather forecasting is huge because some people commute 2 hours each way. This means that one part of the area may get slammed with a foot of snow while other parts get 2 inches. The midwestern cities I lived in had trouble with a foot of snow and often with less, too.

Second, the DC area is in a zone in which it often is right on the border between snow/freezing rain/sleet and rain when this type of event occurs in winter. That makes it harder for the weather forecasters to predict than in colder or warmer areas. We often get icy streets with only an inch or two of snow and this is much more hazardous than 6 inches of cold snow with no ice base. And that's what's expected with this predicted storm too; it was in the 60s today, but the overnight rain is likely to freeze on the roads as the temperature drops in the morning.

Third, parts of DC metro are much hillier than the midwestern cities in which I lived. That means it is harder for school bus drivers to drive safely on hilly slick or icy streets (to say nothing of other vehicles) than on flatter streets. The safety of the kids often is what drives the mayors' (of the various cities/counties in the region) decisions. Also, parents often want to know hours in advance about possible closings, especially here where most households with kids have dual career parents or single parents, as opposed to a parent at home who may be able to adjust more easily.

Fourth, because the area generally gets much less snow than did the midwestern cities in which I lived, it doesn't make as much sense financially to invest heavily in salting/brine trucks and other mitigating mechanisms, given other budget needs. In the last two years there was almost no snow in DC and the immediate surrounding area. So if the region is slammed by an icy mess of a storm, combined with snow (which is what is being forecast right now for much of the region), they can't as easily prepare or respond.