On January 22–24, 2016, a major winter storm dropped 2 or more feet of snow on much of the U.S. East Coast. Landsat 8 images acquired before and after the storm offer a dramatic view of the Washington, DC, area. Before the storm, there was no snow on the ground; however, on January 24 the landscape had become blanketed in white.



In both of these natural color images, the Washington Monument casts a shadow, but the shadow shows up more clearly when the ground is white.



In the lower right part of the image, Andrews Field at Joint Base Andrews becomes a large swath of bright white in the January image. Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, just south of DC, also exhibits this extra brightness. At Reagan, the main runway appears to have been cleared.



Warm temperatures in December meant the Potomac River was not frozen in the December image. By mid-January, parts of the Potomac froze, so some of the river is covered in white in the January image.