Reagan National Airport, located in Arlington, Virginia, is the official weather observing site for Washington. That doesn’t sit well with District of Columbia Council member Charles Allen.
At a hearing convened Tuesday by Ward 3 council member Mary Cheh on winter weather preparedness, Allen took the opportunity to raise, in his words, the “very important” issue of D.C.’s official snowfall measurements. He expressed the view that the District should have an official snowfall-measuring site within its boundaries.
“The Weather Service relies on a measuring point at National Airport, which is in Virginia, not in the District,” Allen said. “And I’m sure you can understand why we take a bit of umbrage at that.”
The Weather Service’s warning coordination meteorologist, Chris Strong, who was testifying at the hearing, did not disagree with Allen but said coming up with the staffing resources to measure snow around the clock is a challenge, while Reagan National Airport already has dedicated weather observers.
“The biggest difficulty is having a 24-7 facility that is there to constantly measure snow,” Strong said. He added that a snow observatory would require trained staff dedicated to observing snow “rather than people who just do it as an afterthought task.”
Allen suggested that D.C.’s snowfall be measured at a site such as the White House or U.S. Naval Observatory, which has around-the-clock staffing. “Certainly they’re in D.C., they have to be operational 24 hours a day, and I think would be representative of what we experience here,” Allen said. “Another option from the local side would be to have a conversation with our HSEMA [Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency] office. They’re going to be operational 24 hours a day. I’d love to see our official D.C. tally point be in D.C.”
National Park Service staff at the White House have already been trained to measure snowfall and posted amounts all last winter. However, their posts are not considered D.C.’s official measurements.
Unofficial snowfall measurements are also taken by volunteer observers at the National Arboretum and Dale Carlia Reservoir.
Capital Weather Gang seasonal forecaster Matt Ross, who also testified at the hearing, agreed with Allen that Reagan National Airport, a.k.a. DCA, is a poor place to measure snowfall. “DCA, first of all, is really not representative of much of the District,” he said. “It’s going to be the lowest [in terms of snowfall totals], pretty much all the time. Maybe it’s going to be close to what’s at the Mall, but 90 percent of D.C. gets more [snow] than DCA.”
Ross also mentioned past snowfall-measurement controversy at the airport and said he thought the Mall, White House, Arboretum or Zoo would serve as better sites.
“It’s time to move it to the District and away from DCA,” Ross said. “They’re too many issues with DCA.”
Allen said: “I agree with you 100 percent.”
Allen ended his time by stating he would be interested in having a discussion with Strong’s team at the Weather Service about how to move snow observations back to the District, given the various requirements. “I feel like there have got to be sites that . . . would be more reflective and just make us a lot happier,” he said.
(c) 2016, The Washington Post ยท Jason Samenow
