In the quiet after the storms, streets and cars had all but
disappeared under piles of snow. The U.S. Postal Service
suspended service for the first time in 30 years. Snow plows
struggled to push the evidence off of major roads. Hundreds of
thousands of Washington metropolitan residents grappled with the
loss of electricity and heat for almost a week. By Feb. 10, 2010
the National Weather Service reported that three storms spanning
from December to February in the winter of 2009-10 had dumped a
whopping 54.9 inches of snow on the Baltimore-Washington area.
The snowfall broke a seasonal record first set in 1899.
Snowmaggedon, as the winter was dubbed, entered the history
books as the snowiest winter on record for the U.S. East Coast.
Two years later, scientists are still searching to identify the
unique set of conditions that enabled storms of this magnitude
to occur. To determine a direct cause to infrequent but major
winter storms, Siegfried Schubert and colleagues Yehui Chang and
Max Suarez – all of NASA's