One photo taken in the early morning of Monday, March 17, showed more than eight inches of snow on the ground in Odenton, Md., and since Monday is St Patrick’s Day, lighting has turned the snow green in the photo, taken by Rayford Latrent Smith and posted under a Creative Commons license.
Several schools in Maryland were closed on Monday, including but not limited to public schools in the Baltimore City, and in Allegany, Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Calvert, Caroline, Carroll, Cecil, Charles, Dorchester, Frederick, Harford, Howard, Montgomery, Prince George’s, Queen Anne’s, St Mary’s, and Talbot counties. Other districts were delayed by a few hours, including Washington County.
The snowfall broke a record in Baltimore at BWI Airport, which is the official reporting site for the city. As of 4:40 AM, 5.9 inches of snow had been reported. The old record for this date goes back to 1931, when five inches of snow fell on the city, the Baltimore Sun reports.
In the Washington area, higher snowfall totals were experienced, WJLA (ABC affiliate) reported. According to the station, 10 inches of snow fell at Dulles International on Monday. Last year, 1.4 inches fell there on March 25, but two years ago, sunny skies and 70-degree temperatures prevailed on St Patrick’s Day in Washington, the station noted.
Lots of snow days, possible waivers
Students are required to be in school for 180 days every year, but snow days that aren’t built in to the calendar don’t count. School districts can ask the state superintendent to waive a few days on which schools were closed due to inclement weather. Waiver requests are often granted for an excessive number of snow days that, if made up, would lengthen the school year, in some cases, for several weeks.
However, most school districts are waiting until the winter is over before deciding how the missed days will be made up or if they’ll apply for waivers, the Baltimore Sun reports in a story from Howard County.
