There was a very heavy snowfall in the Washington, D.C. area in late December, nicknamed "Snowpocalypse" by residents. Well over a foot of snow came down, a record for snowfall in the month of December in this area. A few days after that storm, Kevin Ambrose, a member of the Washington Post's intrepid Capital Weather Gang, went to Mount Vernon and took some beautiful photographs, including the shot to the right showing the Potomac-facing side of the mansion.

That massive blizzard was followed by an even larger one last week, nicknamed "Snowmageddon" and dumping over two feet of snow in most of the Mid-Atlantic states. And that was followed by yet another blizzard still going on at this moment; it has already left another foot of snow outside. The winter of 2009-2010 is now officially considered the snowiest winter in the era of modern recordkeeping.

But what about before the era of modern recordkeeping? George Washington, a farmer who was a keen observer of the weather, noted in his diary in 1772 a snowfall greater than Snowmageddon's. There had been small snows a few times in January of that year, but at the end of the month, Mount Vernon was socked. Here are excerpts from Washington's diaries:

[Jan. 27] A Snow which began in the Night and was about 5 or 6 Inches deep this Morning kept constantly at it the whole day with the Wind hard & Cold from the Northward. [Jan. 28] The Same Snow continued all last Night and all this day with equal violence the Wind being very cold and hard from the Northward—drifting the Snow into high banks. [Jan. 29] Fine pleasant Morning without any Wind—but before 11 Oclock it clouded up & threatned Snow all the remaining part of the day—being full 3 feet deep every where already. [Jan. 30] Snowd all Night, with a brisk Wind from the Northward. The day cloudy and Misty—now & then Raining till the Afternoon when it grew clear, wind Westerly.

Washington also noted on January 29 that he rode to his mill "with much difficulty" since the snow was "up to the breast of a Tall Horse everywhere." That comment, along with his remark that the snow was "full 3 feet deep every where" makes clear that he was not misled by steep drifts.

Thomas Jefferson also described the blizzard in his Garden Book, dating the storm to January 26 and calling it  "the deepest snow we have ever seen. in Albermale it was about 3. f. deep." And there is a note of the storm in the "Diary of Little Colonial Girl"; the diarist* writes that

On Monday, the 27th of Jan. there fell an amazing snow, two feet & a half deep.

Washington's diaries note in the following weeks how the "deep & crusty" snow made it difficult to travel by horse. With the help of rain, much of the snow had melted by February 20 ("Ground in the old fields being almost bear [bare]"). He notes that it was all gone by February 22, his birthday.

While I can write this blog post in the midst of a blizzard, in Washington's day, news could not travel quickly over snowy ground. The editors of Washington's diaries note that, as a result of the 1772 storm, "the Virginia Gazette carried no news from a northern source until 5 Mar," more than a month after the big storm.