Photo by John Cochran.

The federal government will be closed Thursday, as will the District government, the city’s public schools, the University of the District of Columbia, and Catholic, American, Howard, George Washington and Georgetown universities. No, you don’t have to wake up at 4 a.m. tomorrow. It’s OK to sleep in.

D.C. declared a snow emergency that began at 6:30 p.m. today. This means that roads along snow routes must be cleared for plows.

Metro says its rail system “will open at 5 a.m. with service expected to run on or close to a regular weekday schedule as long as conditions permit.” Metrobus, MetroAccess and Circulator service is completely suspended until further notice. Rock Creek Parkway is closed at this time.

Snow began to fall in the District around 7 p.m. According to the Capital Weather Gang, we should expect four to eight inches to fall overnight. This will be followed by “mixed precipitation [that] may turn back to snow.”

Yes, the D.C. Snowball Fight Association is watching the weather.

So, our biggest snowfall for four years decides to visit us in the middle of the night, and by the time the sun rises, a wintry mix of sleet and freezing rain threatens to mess all of it up (we don’t want to throw ice balls!) It’s terrible timing for all of us who wanted to actually celebrate this rare DC phenomenon :-[

That said, we’ll keep watching the forecast and the actual conditions tonight and tomorrow morning, in the chance that some snowballs can be salvaged…

What will you do with the day off? Oh, what’s that? You still have to work? Sorry, buddy. Feel free to hang out with DCist tomorrow. We’ll be here all day.

Filed Under: district government, federal government closed, snow day,