During a recent live chat with our meteorologists, comparisons were drawn between Wednesday's thundersnow and the Veteran's Day snowstorm of 1987. Like this week's storm, it was raining shortly before a fierce wave of snow rushed in. However, unlike the recent storm, this one totally took D.C. by surprise. “Our old friend Gordon Barnes had called for rain and highs near 50 degrees the night before the storm hit,” says Bob Ryan, ABC7 senior meteorologist. (Who's Gordon Barnes? Man, you don't know nuthin'.)

Being a whelp at the time, I had no recollection of this historic snowstorm of Nov. 11, 1987. But it was a huge event, sort of the proto-thundersnow. After it cleared the area, D.C. officials ran to the drawing board to develop what became known as the Washington Metropolitan Area Snow Plan. Were the city's plans effective in fighting Wednesday's storm? I'm going to say it could've been a whole lot worse.

The day began with the National Weather Service calling for a wintry mix with little chance of accumulation. Circumstances soon changed as the storm system slowed down and began to amass great energy.

Forecasters in D.C. were blinded to the gathering storm because, back then, technology like lightning-detection networks and Doppler radar didn't exist. It wasn't until heavy snow moved over the Beltway that people realized what was about to happen.

The storm commenced walloping locals with thunder, lightning and more than a foot of snow. Traffic ground to a halt. There was a 20-vehicle pileup on I-395, and two drivers died on I-70 – one in a wreck, and the other in a 35-foot fall after he jumped over a guardrail to avoid a sliding car.

The National Weather Service has a brief account of the storm on its local-history page. Tell me if any of this sounds familiar:

"The Veteran's Day Storm will not be forgotten by many Washington area travelers. Almost a foot (11.5 inches) fell at National Airport. Prince Georges County, MD was hard hit with up to 13 inches of snow falling in a short amount of time. It caught motorists off guard and stranded cars on the Capitol Beltway. There were so many cars that snow plows could not get through to open the clogged arteries. Cars littered the roadway for more than 24 hours.”