A snowstorm dubbed “Snowmageddon” - not just major, but historically major - was heading to the U.S. capital on Friday, threatening to dump as much as 65 centimeters on a region that rarely gets more than a few dustings a year.

Not a flake had fallen from the sky, however, when schools in the city and its surrounding suburbs announced they were closing early, the mayor of Washington, D.C., declared a snow emergency, airlines canceled flights, airports prepared to shut down and citizens raced to grocery and hardware stores to stock up on supplies.

“We're just preparing, basically, for a three- or four-day sit-in,” said Nancy Mills, 47, as she walked her dog in Silver Spring, Maryland, under menacingly leaden skies.

“Nothing moves when it snows here at all, never mind when there's that much. We just don't have the snow removal equipment to deal with it, so we don't expect to be going anywhere for a few days.”

The storm was said to be in contention to break the record posted by a 1922 blizzard that blew in off the Atlantic.