Winter’s coming. Are you prepared? Because if you’re a normal D.C.-area resident — and particularly a civil servant of any GS pay scale — you are allergic to winter. (This DCist grew up in a lake-effect snow belt in Michigan. We actually like the snow and enjoy seeing everyone freak out.) The District is in the process of distributing its guide to winter survival, a handy briefing on how the city clears snow from roadways and how ordinary citizens can help. You may have seen it stuck in this weekend’s Post.

As you probably can assume, clearing snow from city streets can be a challenge, and because of D.C.’s unique terrain, certain parts of the city can be buried for days (or weeks) before plows can get to them or the weather warms up enough to melt the snow. So Mount Peasant, Georgetown, Anacostia, get ready.

Remember if you own property in the District, you have eight hours to clear public sidewalks of snow or face a fine. (We fondly remember after the President’s Day blizzard of 2003 seeing a group of uniformed butlers and housekeepers on R Street near Katharine Graham’s old house clearing the sidewalk of a huge snow pile, with one housekeeper slipping into the dirty-white mess. Only in Georgetown …)

It may be a good time to review which roadways are snow emergency routes as those are the first thoroughfares to be cleared by the city. They generally overlap with the city’s evacuation routes. And if you are a fortunate bus rider, remember that many buses won’t navigate off of snow emergency routes, so expect to huff and puff it to the nearest major avenue to catch a slow and overcrowded bus.

This image is from the archives of Yakusha, who took this photo this past February of an icy branch near what looks like the Indonesian Embassy on Massachusetts Avenue and 21st Street in Northwest.