Snow covers cherry blossoms around the Washington Monument as a snowstorm passes through Washington on March 21. (Harrison Jones/Flickr)

Congratulations to Annelise Osterberg, Randy Wynn and Sarah Zielinski. These three Capital Weather Gang readers nailed the forecast for how much snow would fall in Washington this winter, correctly calling for 7.8 inches.

Nearly 700 people entered the contest, which asked readers to predict to the nearest tenth of an inch how much snow would fall at Reagan National Airport, Washington’s official weather-observing location, between Dec. 1 and April 1.

[Welcome, spring! We, finally, declare winter dead in Washington.]

In addition to the three readers who were spot on in their predictions (highlighted in green below), five additional participants were just a tenth of an inch away from getting it right (highlighted in yellow) and deserve honorable mention:

Twenty-nine readers (or 4 percent of all entrants) were within a half-inch of being correct, with forecasts between 7.3 and 8.3 inches. Fifty-two readers (or 7.5 percent of all entrants) were within an inch of being right.

Predictions spanned zero and 78 inches, with an average forecast of 18.1 inches and median of 16.5 inches.


I also asked all of the Capital Weather Gang contributors for predictions, which ranged from 9 to 28 inches, with an average of 15.6 inches.

None of us were that close. Joe Kunches, our space weather expert, had the best forecast of the bunch with 9 inches.

This is the sixth winter we’ve conducted such a contest. In the winter of 2016-2017, not one CWG reader correctly called for the lowly 3.4 inches that fell.

Note that there is no material or cash prize for these contests, just recognition and bragging rights.

Below, you can see the winners from previous years:

Capital Weather Gang snowfall forecast contest winners, 2016-17

Capital Weather Gang snowfall forecast contest winners, 2015-16

Capital Weather Gang snowfall forecast contest winners, 2014-15

Capital Weather Gang snowfall forecast contest winners, 2013-14

Capital Weather Gang snowfall forecast contest winners, 2012-13