“Raw, cold, and cloudy with the wind though not much of it Northerly.”
Such was the pitiful, dramatic description George Washington deemed fit for Virginia’s snow-covered landscape, documenting the unprecedented winter bluster in his weather-keeping journal on Jan. 26, 1772, from his home at Mount Vernon. Days later, he noted that he “with much difficulty rid as far as the Mill, the snow being up to the breast of a Tall Horse everywhere.” Yes—snow was piling up to torso height, and in Virginia, too.
Hailing from Michigan, I’m inclined to pooh-pooh the mere glaze of snow that graces Virginia’s streets come winter—but one shouldn’t let those light dustings set the wrong idea. Virginia knows snow.
The snowstorm Washington wrote of in those pre-Revolutionary days remains, to this day, the state’s highest snowfall on record. Dubbed the Washington-Jefferson Snowstorm, both founding fathers—meteorology enthusiasts in their own right—recorded at least three feet of snow in their diaries. Jefferson, returning to Monticello after his honeymoon in Charles City the night of the great storm, was forced to abandon his carriage and brave the wind and freezing snow on horseback with his bride Martha. When they arrived, their cottage was cold, dark, and empty—the servants had retired for the night. Their daughter later recalled, “The horrible dreariness of such a house, at the end of such a journey, I have often heard both relate.”
Horrible dreariness—that I can relate to, even today, in Richmond’s bitter cold, which bites as sharply as Midwest winds can, even on clear days. Nearly a century after Washington’s flurry, Virginia endured another historic blizzard, this time smothering Norfolk in 20-foot snowdrifts. Prince George County resident Edmund Ruffin recorded in his diary on Jan. 19, 1857, “I passed a wretched night, with cold feet.” No exaggeration: That night, Ruffin slept under six blankets, with two more and a cloak over his feet—wrapped in wool socks, no less. Yet still, the cold crept in. The winds made this event so remarkable, sweeping the snow so wildly that some Tidewater areas were nearly bare while others lay buried beneath several feet.
Snowstorms continue to catch Virginia off guard: “Snowmageddon” (2010) dumped more than 2 feet on airport tarmacs; 2016’s Snowstorm Jonas shut down bus routes statewide; and every so often, the state gets the rare gift of a White Christmas, like in December 2009.
Virginia’s snowstorms have been dreadful, beautiful, and unforgettable. Take a look back at some of the testiest tempests with Virginia Living. The history, like the snow, piles up fast.
Jan. 26–28, 1772: Washington-Jefferson Snowstorm
One Winchester Gazette correspondent called it “the most Pacific winter ever known since the memory of man.”
Jan. 16–18, 1857: The Great Blizzard
Temperatures in Petersburg dipped to -22˚F.
February 1899: The Great Arctic Outbreak
The blizzard struck on Valentine’s Day and lasted—Winchester recorded 54 total inches of snowfall for the month.
Jan. 28, 1922: Knickerbocker Storm
This storm caused the tragic collapse of the Knickerbocker Theatre in D.C. and stretched across Virginia, dumping 19 inches of snow on Richmond.
March 29–30, 1942: Palm Sunday Snowstorm
A rare latecomer.
Feb. 18–19, 1979: Presidents’ Day Storm
Snow fell 2–3 inches per hour, and farmers who had been protesting in D.C. ended up using their agricultural equipment to dig NoVa locals out of snowbanks.
Jan. 7–13, 1996: Blizzard of ‘96
Two feet of snow blanketed Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall.
Dec. 18–19, 2009: 2009 Nor’easter
The largest December snowfall event in the region’s recorded history—Stuarts Draft saw 28 inches.
February 2010: Snowmageddon
In two back-to-back blizzards, snow fell hard, fast, and deep throughout the state, dropping visibility to 1/16 of a mile during peak snowfall.
Jan. 22–23, 2016: Snowzilla
Just weeks after NoVa experienced its warmest end of the year in history, the region saw more than 3 feet of snow—Gainesboro had 38 inches.
Featured illustration by Patrick Boyer. This article originally appeared in the February 2026 issue.
