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Dr. Jeff Masters' compiled a list of the top snowstorms on record for Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, and helpfully set this season's storms in bold. From his blog entry:

Top 9 snowstorms on record for Philadelphia:

1. 30.7", Jan 7-8, 1996
2. 28.5", Feb 5-6, 2010 (Snowmageddon)
3. 23.2", Dec 19-20, 2009 (Snowpocalypse)
4. 21.3", Feb 11-12, 1983
5. 21.0", Dec 25-26, 1909
6. 19.4", Apr 3-4, 1915
7. 18.9", Feb 12-14, 1899
8. 16.7", Jan 22-24, 1935
9. 15.1", Feb 28-Mar 1, 1941

The top 10 snowstorms on record for Baltimore:

1. 28.2", Feb 15-18, 2003
2. 26.5", Jan 27-29, 1922
3. 24.8", Feb 5-6, 2010 (Snowmageddon)
4. 22.8", Feb 11-12, 1983
5. 22.5", Jan 7-8, 1996
6. 22.0", Mar 29-30, 1942
7. 21.4", Feb 11-14, 1899
8. 21.0", Dec 19-20, 2009 (Snowpocalypse)
9. 20.0", Feb 18-19, 1979
10. 16.0", Mar 15-18, 1892

The top 10 snowstorms on record for Washington, D.C.:

1. 28.0", Jan 27-28, 1922
2. 20.5", Feb 11-13, 1899
3. 18.7", Feb 18-19, 1979
4. 17.8" Feb 5-6, 2010 (Snowmageddon)
5. 17.1", Jan 6-8, 1996
6. 16.7", Feb 15-18, 2003
7. 16.6", Feb 11-12, 1983
8. 16.4", Dec 19-20, 2009 (Snowpocalypse)
9. 14.4", Feb 15-16, 1958
10. 14.4", Feb 7, 1936

I wonder what this week's storm will be called. At this rate, they're going to run out of cutsey names.

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There are always more cute names.
Snow-my-god?

Snowverkill is the one I keep seeing around Twitter.

ETA Yup, that's what the Capital Weather Gang at the Washington Post (http://voices.washingtonpost.com/capitalweathergang/) is calling it.

Edited 2010-02-09 06:56 (UTC)

that's cleverer than the other two... heh

Snow-no-make-it-stop.

I first heard the snowmageden and snowpaclypse comments from friendds down in DC and MD during the last storm a month or so ago, I have to admit the terms drive me nuts - and I have heard them used on varying snowstorms interchangeably since.

I think it drives me nuts mostly because said friends all have power, and heat, and internet still - and in New Hampshire and parts of MA last year, we had an ice storm that knocked out all of those things, and didn't feel the need to talk about a snowpaclypse. I had coworkers who had no electricty for over a month.

I don't see how it being any sort of apocylpse if you still have your electricity and can make hot cocoa with little tiny marshmallows, and browse Facebook.

It honestly makes me want to slap someone when I hear those terms - its such a first world problem / term to describe the inconvenience of some weather.

p.s. I should mention I know its a really big bunch of storms - but we already have a name for those - blizzards. Appropriating more serious words for cutesy purposes just devalues the original word of its seriousness.

I know it's not the apocalypse... but i also do know at least 1/2 dozen people who have been without power, heat, or internet since saturday, and several more who were without those things for several days. It's not all hot cocoa and marshmallows.

Also, several roofs have collapsed. And in an area without the infrastructure to deal with this much snow, transportation really does become a problem. (Though one could argue that an area that gets storms like this every 5-10 years should be somewhat more prepared...)

Anyway, i get why you find the terms annoying! But i also do think it's more than some inconvenient weather down there right now.

Thank you for mentioning that - the storm I mentioned in NH last year (2008) left parts of the state without power for over a month, and the power companies actually ran out of transformers so some folks didn't get their power back until NYE.
There were state of emergenices declared for 3 states.

It was really bad blizzard, as is what's happening in DC. It can be more than an annoyance (and if implied that, it wasn't the intent), as there can be property damage, etc., but its not something that doesn't happen periodically and hopefully not the end of the world.

Part of the problem is that that area of the country does as you mention get this sort of snow every few years and then the government seems shocked that it happened, again! I was talking to my dad last night about his being in DC for a business trip in the 90s and the same thing happening.

I think my annoyance is a lot due to the fact that all the people I hear using the terms mentioned are in fact folks who are safely bunkered in their homes and who are happily drinking cocoa.

It's also something about the inaccuracy of the conjunction of words that does it to me - similar when people use the word rape inappropriately, thus lessing its real meaning.

I think it also trips the same annoyance area as when people call Easter - Zombie Jesus day (yeah, it was a vaguelly original phrasing the first time I heard it - the 20th, you're no longer original and coming off more like you're insulting a religion).

I apparently have a sensitivity button on proper word usage, similar to the issues some folks have with grammer.

Wow -- I'd never heard Zombie Jesus day. I find that seriously insulting, and i'm not even someone who celebrates that particular holiday/religion!

Also, I totally get what you're saying about devaluing the power of words. That bugs me too. But i guess i could argue that words like Apocalypse and Armageddon are already so devalued by pop culture in general that using them in this way doesn't bother me. For me those words evoke action movie heroes, not a serious catastrophe -- i picture Bruce Willis holding back a giant snowball on it's way to roll into the capitol dome. I think silly words like those cheer people up and help foster a sense of camaraderie -- and really, what's wrong with that*?

I would be much more bothered by "snowtastrophe" actually. That strikes me as a more serious word to devalue.

Anyway, it's interesting! :-)

*Actually, fake TV-generated camaraderie can be really annoying. I get that too. I don't know if this is a case of that or not...

"I'd never heard Zombie Jesus day. I find that seriously insulting, and i'm not even someone who celebrates that particular holiday/religion!"

Every year around Easter it pops up, especially on some of my friends' LJ posts...and it's played off as something "hip" and "cute", nto serious, etc...similar to the snowpaclypse stuff- when really its going out of its way to insult someone else's religious beliefs.

Someone actually organized a zmobie walk on Easter Sunday in Davis last year, and when folks realized it was not a scheduling accident, quite a few bailed, but others went because of it.

huh- snowtastrophe would bother me less, but I think catastrophe is already an overused word. That's amusing.

Wanted to add - Really if any natural phenomena should get the term apocalypse or armageden added to it - It should be what happened in Haiti.

See, that i'd find offensive! Because, as i wrote above, i find those words are pretty much silly Hollywood words, far more suited to survivable excitement than to serious disaster.

you see - I see those words as still serious words, and usually when they showup in movies there's a lot of death, and the government infastructure stops working and most of the society collapses. There's also strong biblical tie-ins in my mind, and End of Days theme.

(Okay, and sometimes zombies - but as far as I know there are no zombies in DC outside of the expected ones).

HA!

Well, that's the difference then! (I must admit i'm pretty ignorant when it comes to biblical end of days stuff.)

Also, in case it wasn't clear, i totally respect your POV. It's just different from mine and i was curious as to why! :-)

I watch too much history channel and like medieval literature and background a bit too much for my own good. and no worries on the POV stuff, I didn't take it in a negative light.

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Most people I've been hearing - no irony there - plus if weathermen and newscasters are using it - I don't buy it as such, but this may just me being cynical about weathermen being anything but up-beat and jolly and incapable of cyncism.

Its a big storm anyhow.

Edited 2010-02-10 14:02 (UTC)

My parents' yard stick measured 32" on their patio. My mom seems to think that, in their neighborhood at least, there's significantly more snow than there was in 1996.

Also, a second almost-but-not-quite snow day for me. Weird, without a flake on the ground where i live.

Edited 2010-02-09 13:37 (UTC)

I remember the great blizzard of '96. That storm was incredible. A true storm of the century.

That got me out of a lot of school my senior year. Everyone else had to make it up and stay an extra week into the summer. We had already graduated -- suckers! :-)

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