Not really great, but better then the south.

Here is the interesting thing about DC. When it snows, most cities want people to stay home and chill out, while the roads get cleared. But no one has the power to shutdown private companies. So you get the mayor on TV say please stay home and some schools close but nothing changes.

In DC, the Office of Personnel Management(OPM) can close all federal offices. This will keep more then half the people who go into DC home. It will keep the roads empty until crews can clean the snow away. It will keep thousands of people from getting stuck in grid lock, it will stop a dozen people from getting in accidents while trying to drive in the snow, and it might even save a couple of lives from those accidents, or from heart attacks of people rushing to clear snow before work.

This has created a scapegoat for every office manager who knows it's right to close the office, but doesn't want to look lazy in front of the boss. So not only does OPM close the federal government, a ton of med to large size companies just follow OPM's guidance. No other city has this type of massive, organized "call a snow day" system.

OPM knows the power they have, and they err on the side of caution, especially with DC on the line of rain and snow so often. If West Virginia and the edge of Maryland is going to get a ton of snow, OPM has to worry about those workers doing the long commute. So they shut down everything in the DC area.

It's cool as an employee, because you get more snow days (assuming it snows, F U 2022/23!) but it does waste a bit of resources on these mixed days.

​

Outside of OPM, big storms can shutdown the city for a week. When we get 20+ inches the only thing they can do is push it out of a few lanes of the road and wait for it to melt. They don't have the equipment like Boston to haul it away across the entire city. Also, 20 inches is like knee height, but in the city, where 80% of the ground is street, they plow it into the sidewalk, and you end up with 5 foot berms of snow. If you hear about a 20+ inch storm coming, then be ready to hunker down for a week. (good news is this happens like once every 10 years)