ARLINGTON, Va. — Arlington Public Schools will close all school buildings and any in-person instruction on Wednesday ahead of major winter weather impacting the DMV region.
Director of Communications Frank Bellavia said in-person classes would revert to distance learning for all students in the case of inclement weather in a note to WUSA9 on Monday.
"For this year, in the event of inclement weather that makes travel to and from school unsafe, we would revert from in-person to distance learning for all students, including those in Level 1 or any students participating in in-person learning support," said the school district in an email to WUSA9. "This allows us to protect instruction time as much as possible. If there are severe storm-related incidents such as power or network outages that would not allow students or teachers to connect, we would look at closing school. In the case of a power or network outage, (virtual) instruction would be canceled. Our notification procedures for all school-based activities such as meal services and athletics would follow our normal protocol."
The Meals program provided through APS will be canceled on Wednesday, but meals will continue to be provided on Thursday.
Areas north and west of D.C. such as northern Loudoun, northern Montgomery, Fairfax, Manassas, Frederick, could pick up 3 to 6 inches as these areas will also be favored for cold air, but could also get some mixing that would cut down on snow totals.
D.C., Prince George's County, and areas near D.C. could pick up on a trace to an inch of snow. This area has more potential to get rain. Numbers could go up or down, depending on where the rain/snow line sets up.
Winter Storm Timeline Wednesday — Thursday:
7 a.m. — 9 a.m. Rain and snow slowly begin to fall across the region.
9 a.m. — 12 p.m. — More areas see rain and snow and some sleet mixing in.
12 p.m. — 6 p.m. — Rain picks up in D.C. and areas south, snow gets a little heavier in northern suburbs.
6 p.m. — 12 a.m. — Rain, snow continues with some sleet and freezing rain mixing in some areas. Most of the mixing will be along the rain/snow line.
12 a.m. — 5 a.m. Thursday — Areas that had rain begin to transition to snow. This will be the best opportunity for D.C. to see accumulating snow.
After 5 a.m. A few flurries and light snow showers and light rain linger until late morning. Precipitation begins to wind down.