Winters in DC are generally humid but mild. We typically get a handful of ice storms, and maybe 3 or 4 snowstorms of 3 of 4 inches each. About every 5 years we get one foot in a single storm.
On Saturday, for the second time this winter, we got over
two feet. City residents celebrated with a facebook-organized snowball fight, with attendance in the thousands. News of the snowball fight was picked up by Reuters and
covered internationally. Naturally, I took some pictures.
This storm is different than that from the handful of
photos I posted last week, which were from a much more typically small DC snowstorm.
First, a few general shots of the city.
This is 17th Street, a neighborhood commercial strip. The tall building in the background is the Cairo, a 19th century apartment building that pre-dates DC's height limit.
Enough snow to cover a car is a rare sight in DC... except this year.
Just walking down the street. La-dee-dah.
This person isn't going anywhere anytime soon, I imagine:
On to the snowball fight!
The Dupont Circle snowball fight was to begin at 2:00 pm. As of yesterday afternoon the facebook group had over 6,000 members.
Around 2:00 there was a constant stream of city residents approaching the circle from every direction. It was like an army marching to war.
Aha! Our first glance of the mêlée! That giant dark spot in the distance is the crowd.
We cross the street and enter the circle. The outer perimeter is relatively safe from errant snowball.
Zoomed in on the fountain in the middle of the circle, which appears to be the center of the action.
This man thought he'd get a better view by climbing a tree. He did at that, as he became an obvious target and got several snowballs to the torso.
Hoping for a slightly safer view, hundreds of people stood up on the benches that line the perimeter of the circle.
TV crews were left unmolested.
Here they interview a man who came armored for battle. He was pelted throughout the interview.
Having concluded his interview, he plotted revenge.
Looking towards the center again. I think it's time we head in that direction.
The central plaza area was defended by a line of ball throwers.
Scary!
The defensive line put out a torrent of snowballs. Oops.
Now my lens is wet. I tucked the camera and pushed forward, through the defensive line and into the central plaza area, where I found another front. A hundred of so people took position in the very center, at the fountain (that I had zoomed in on earlier), where they were surrounded by thousands, with a narrow no-man's-land inbetween.
In this picture the central fountain is just off-frame at right, with the surrounding attackers at left and the no-man's-land between.
Every so often some group of attackers launched into a charge.
Defense of the central fountain:
It's hard to tell in the pictures, but snowballs were flying everywhere. This man didn't make it by me without being hit.
One strategy was to bring a shield. Doing so tended to just make you more of a target.
Overview of the central fountain. The marble pedestal on which it sits is so covered in packed-down snow that it looks like a natural hill.
What would a battle be without a flag? Good going, sir. I salute you.
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