Update, 2 p.m. Friday: Fairfax County Public Schools have canceled all evening activities due to inclement weather.

A little bit of snow is likely heading here this evening. It’s not much, but it may be just enough to impact evening rush hour.

The Capital Weather Gang says about a half-inch of snow is expected to move through Northern Virginia about 6 p.m. But combined with very cold temperatures, that could make for icy roads and backed-up traffic, similar to what we saw on Jan. 20.

On Jan. 20, an early evening dusting turned short commutes into hours-long treks within Fairfax County and from DC to Northern Virginia.

The Virginia Department of Transportation says it will have 1,150 trucks deployed to continually treat roads by early afternoon. Crews began treating roads in advance yesterday and are finishing mid-day today, said VDOT.

Read more on the Capital Weather Gang and from the National Weather Service.

file photo

Due to road temperatures forecast below freezing in parts of Fairfax County this evening, facilities and school grounds will be closed starting at 6:15 p.m. Tuesday night, Fairfax County Public Schools announced.

All activities scheduled in Fairfax County public schools or on school grounds for this evening must be completed by 6:15 p.m. or are canceled, including:

• extracurricular activities
• interscholastic contests
• team practices
• field trips
• professional learning and training courses
• adult and community education classes

• recreation programs and community use by outside groups not affiliated with FCPS

SACC centers will remain open until 6:15 p.m. SACC Administration requests parents make every effort to pick up children earlier, if possible.

Superintendent Karen Garza’s listening tour was scheduled to have its Hunter Mill session at Madison High School at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. That event will be be held at a later date.

Northern Virginia streets — and work and school schedules — are getting back to normal have the big snow of nearly two weeks ago.

So it’s a good time to take a step back and reflect about what went right and what wasn’t so right in the Fairfax County and Virginia Department of Transportation response.

Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chair Sharon Bulova is calling for a “snow summit” at the Supervisors’ March 1 meeting.

“Compared to ‘Snowmageddon,’ [in February of 2010] where some county residents were trapped — some of them without power in their homes for up to a week —  I think VDOT’s response to this storm was excellent, but there are still lessons to be learned and practices that can be improved,” she said at Tuesdays Board of Supervisors meeting. Read More

Fairfax County Public Schools will finally open on Monday — but there will be a two-hour delay, the system announced Sunday afternoon.

From FCPS:

Following an assessment of roads and sidewalks throughout the county, despite rising temperatures today, a significant number of sidewalks and crosswalks remain impassable.

In order to provide additional daylight for morning travel, including more than 40,000 students that walk to school, all Fairfax County public schools will open two hours late Monday February 1, 2016. School offices and central offices will open on time. (Condition 3B)

• Morning preschool (special education) classes are canceled.
• Afternoon preschool classes start on their regular schedule.
• Full-day preschool (special education) and Family and Early Childhood Education Program/Head Start classes start two hours later than the regular schedule.
• Morning field trips are canceled.
• SACC centers will open at 7 a.m.
• Morning transportation for high school academy classes is canceled. Transportation for afternoon academy classes will be provided.
• Adult and community education classes will start on time.

We ask the community to please clear sidewalks and bus stops to the extent practicable. Drivers are asked to be extra vigilant as students make their way to and from schools and bus stops this week. Many residential streets have been narrowed by snow piles which may make it challenging for our buses to navigate.

The FCPS Transportation Office has been assessing bus routes throughout the weekend and will communicate via email alternative pick up and drop off location as necessary. For those utilizing kiss and ride, please exercise patience as traffic volumes may be higher than normal.

FCPS has not had school since Wednesday, Jan. 20 due to snow.

Photo: Snowed-in sidewalk in Reston, Sunday, Jan. 31

Fairfax County Public School students have not had class since Jan. 20. Will they return Monday? FCPS says school is definitely in session.

It’s been nearly a week since close to three feet of snow socked Reston. While warmer temperatures have contributed to significant melting, many streets are still down to one lane and lots of sidewalks remain unshoveled, so really, anything can happen.

What’s your prediction? Will the school district really be ready for kids to return to class on Monday? Or will FCPS be looking at its eighth snow day or more?

FYI, next week is already a shortened week for students. There is a two-hour early release Thursday and end-of-semester student holiday/teacher workday Friday.

Warmer temperatures have contributed to significant melting of the record snow this week, but one problem still plaguing Reston-area roads is narrow access — two-lane roads are now one-lane roads in many spots.

Snowplow piles and lanes that haven’t been plowed are on many roads, making it slow-going or even dangerous on major streets.

Many Reston Now readers pointed out some of the worst trouble spots on Reston Now’s Facebook page this morning:

There are also some roads in which one side only has half a lane (Twin Branches is one of them, I’m sure there are a lot more), with the the right half of the lane completely blocked by snow mounds. Which means if you’re driving in a full lane, you may pass someone going the opposite way who is literally being forced to straddle the yellow lane. Please, people, show some courtesy and move over to the right as far as you can so everyone can move.

The other bad street for me is Soapstone north of Glade. The plowed part starts on the far left moves to the center then back over the left. This leaves you w/o proper lane markings.

Soapstone from Glade to Sunrise Valley. Downright scary yesterday.

It took me 45 minutes to drive 2 miles in Reston at rush hour last night.

The Virginia Department of Transportation says “crews have worked around-the-clock to make all roads in northern Virginia passable post-blizzard, but there is still some clean-up to do.”

By 3 p.m. Thursday, Sunrise Valley Drive, for instance, had been cleared edge-to-edge, but nearby Soapstone Drive still had people driving in the turn lane.

“Crews are working to widen and restore remaining snow-impacted lanes on primary and high-volume secondary roads,” said VDOT spokeswoman Jennifer McCord. “Clearing efforts will continue through the week, using equipment such as front loaders and motor graders to move snow where plows are unable to push.” Read More

It has been more than 24 hours since the parking lot at the Reston Post office was finally plowed.

The post office was socked in by snow from Friday to early Wednesday. Rep. Gerry Connolly’s office got involved with the issue late on Tuesday to speed up the process.

The clear parking lot meant mail trucks were finally freed, and many Reston residents (editor’s note: including me) got home delivery on Wednesday for the first time in four or five days.

Even though the federal government in Washington was closed for several days earlier this week, that should not have affected mail delivery. The USPS is considered a separate agency and mail delivery is only affected on pre-scheduled national holidays.

However some Reston residents still have empty mailboxes.

One resident sent an anonymous message to Reston Now:

“Someone told a fib, either the USPS or Representative Connolly’s office. Mail was not delivered to ‘every residence’ in Reston on Wednesday. I notified Connolly’s office, but this is getting ridiculous.”

“We didn’t expect mail on Saturday or Monday, but it’s Thursday and we aren’t getting anything. I live in a condo development in “less desirable South Reston”, but we have clear sidewalks, a clear parking lot, and the roads to get here are passable.”

The reader said he has notified TV stations and Virginia Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner.

Have you gotten home delivery of mail this week? Let us know in the comments.

You’ve spent hours shoveling out a parking spot. You are not going to put in all that effort for nothing.

That was the message all along Glade Drive on Wednesday. As many people returned to work, they had to dig out their cars from snowdrifts and snowplow piles.

When they departed, they left behind all sorts of things to mark their sweat-equity territory — a pet carrier, brooms, concrete blocks and a whole variety of chairs, among other items.

Reston Now reader Joy Charles captured photos of some of the creativity along Glade between Reston Parkway and Fairfax Parkway.

Do you think residents should me able to mark parking spots on a public road/main thoroughfare like Glade?

Photos by Joy Charles

You know the drill.

Fairfax County Public Schools will be closed for the rest of the week so crews can continue to clean up from the three-foot snowfall that pummeled the area over the weekend.

FCPS students have not had school since last Wednesday. By the end of the week, there will have been seven snow days used this schools year.

The closing is condition 5, which means school offices will be open.

The following activities in schools and on school grounds are canceled:

• extracurricular activities
• interscholastic contests
• team practices
• field trips
• middle school after-school programs
• professional learning and training courses
• adult and community education classes
• recreation programs and community use by outside groups not affiliated with FCPS
• School age child care (SACC) centers are closed

While FCPS is responsible for the area immediately around school grounds, it is not responsible for clearing sidewalks for the entire route to school.

The school system sent an email to families earlier this week urging them to help shovel the sidewalks nearby in order to aid in snow-removal efforts.

Photo: Terraset Elementary School/Credit: Leslie Sogandares

The Reston branch of the U.S. Post Office has finally been plowed and will be open for business Wednesday.

Reston residents should expect home mail delivery Wednesday.

The branch had been closed since Saturday, when a blizzard dumped nearly three feet of snow on Reston. There has been no residential delivery Friday as delivery trucks were snowbound in the parking lot.

A private contractor is responsible for plowing the lot of the building on Sunset Hills Road.

Rep. Gerry Connolly’s office was alerted by a Reston resident to the plow’s no-show. Connolly’s office got involved, and the parking lot was plowed.

Metro officials said they have successfully cleared snow and ice from train rails, which means the Silver Line will be back in service Wednesday morning.

Trains began running at 5 a.m. All other rail lines are open as well.

Metro officials had announced late Tuesday afternoon that they were still unsure about the Silver Line’s status for Wednesday.

Trains will operate every 8 minutes between Wiehle-Reston East and Largo Town Center stations. In the downtown core of the system where stations are served by multiple lines, trains will serve stations about every 4 minutes.

Fairfax County Public Schools has announced it will be closed on Wednesday, Jan. 27. This will be the fifth snow day of the 2015-16 school year.

Many school driveways — as well as residential neighborhoods — in Fairfax County have not yet been plowed, making school access unsafe.

Said FCPS in a statement:

While road conditions are improving, they vary greatly across the County, with some roads not yet clear. In order to open safely as soon as road conditions permit, FCPS crews are working around-the-clock to clear access to schools and offices.

FCPS will continue to monitor the situation daily and another update will be provided tomorrow afternoon. Changes to the end of the semester dates are under evaluation and any changes will be communicated when possible.”

Cancellation also includes all activities on school grounds:

• extracurricular activities
• interscholastic contests
• team practices
• field trips
• middle school after-school programs
• professional learning and training courses
• adult and community education classes
• recreation programs and community use by outside groups not affiliated with FCPS
• School age child care (SACC) centers are closed

Photo: Snow at Terraset ES/Credit: Leslie Sogandares 

The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) says its goal is to make one lane of all Northern Virginia subdivisions passable by Wednesday at 6 a.m., but the daunting amount of snow is one of many factors that has impeded speedy snow removal.

The agency, which is responsible for most of Virginia’s primary and secondary roads, said in a statement that “crews are making significant progress on 16,000 subdivision streets across Northern Virginia. If residents do not have one passable lane by 6 a.m. tomorrow, they can contact VDOT at 1-800-FOR-ROAD or [email protected].

VDOT says passable is defined as the ability for a rear wheel drive vehicle to operate safely. This means that roads will not be cleared down to bare pavement and will not be cleared curb to curb.

“VDOT has approximately almost four times the amount of equipment available in previous years,” VDOT said. “The type of equipment needed for this phase of the response is of a much larger scale and complexity. The smaller plows that VDOT typically uses in subdivision are effective up to 10 inches of snow. Some neighborhoods of Northern Virginia received upwards of 40 inches of snow and require heavier equipment.”

The blizzard that dumped about three feet of snow in this area over the weekend was “historic,” VDOT officials said. As with previous large storms, (i.e. in 2003 and 2010), they are urging residents to be patient.

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