For three weeks, the District’s snow removal crews have been trucking most of D.C.’s excess snow and ice to one of the former RFK Stadium parking lots.
For three weeks, the District’s snow removal crews have been trucking most of the city’s excess snow and ice to one of the parking lots at the former RFK Stadium site.
By Friday, the 15-foot-tall snow and ice mound covered a 320,000 square-foot area, D.C. Department of Transportation spokesman German Vigil said. That’s the equivalent of five and a half football fields.
And it could be there well into May.
“To figure out how long will it actually take for some massive pile of snow or ice to melt, there’s only two numbers you need,” Jonathan Boreyko, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Virginia Tech, told WTOP. “One number is how much total heat is going into the snow from the sun or the warm air, and then the other number is how much mass of ice do you actually have to melt.”
Based on DDOT’s numbers, he estimated the RFK pile’s mass at a massive 33 million kilograms. The sun alone, he said, would melt a snow pile of that size and density in around 200 days, assuming no changes in air temperature.
“If the air can get dramatically above freezing, it’s a much more complex analysis,” Boreyko said.
But the warming air should help get the job done in “tens of days, not hundreds,” he said.
The high end of that estimate would leave remnants of the pile at RFK until Memorial Day weekend.
Boreyko has published two papers on melting snow and ice, but he spends more time on other research.
“Something my group is doing that I’m very excited about, for these winter seasons, is we’re trying to use electric fields to rip ice and frost off of surfaces like cars and airplanes electrically,” Boreyko said.
They call it electrostatic de-icing: “It’s something we’re trying to make more effective, and we’re excited about its prospects long term,” he said.
Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.
Traffic flows on highways near downtown Fort Worth on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026. TxDOT spokesperson Val Lopez said that crews were working around the clock to keep conditions as safe as possible on the roads.
Amanda McCoy
amccoy@star-telegram.com
Some North Texas roads may still be hazardous into Thursday morning’s commute, even after ice melting Wednesday, officials with the National Weather Service in Fort Worth said.
Lingering ice and refreezing will continue to affect some roads through Thursday, according to an updated forecast.
A second round of freezing fog could also affect travel conditions overnight, mainly near and east of Interstate 35, according to the NWS forecast.
Conditions Wednesday were much more favorable for melting snow and ice still on the ground, but any remaining slush or water is liable to refreeze overnight as temperatures dip back near freezing, a National Weather Service meteorologist said.
Still, temperatures will warm up quickly to reach above 40 by around 9 a.m. Thursday and a high in the mid 50s Thursday afternoon.
Lillie Davidson is a breaking news reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. She graduated from TCU in 2025 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism, is fluent in Spanish, and can complete a crossword in five minutes.
NUUK, Greenland — President Trump retreated Wednesday from his most serious threats toward Denmark, easing transatlantic tensions and lifting Wall Street after rejecting the prospect he would use military force to annex Greenland, a Danish territory and the world’s largest island.
Instead, the United States struck a “framework” agreement in talks with NATO’s secretary general regarding the future of Greenland, “and in fact, the whole Arctic region,” Trump wrote on social media. He did not immediately provide details on the contents of the plan.
The whiplash of developments followed weeks of escalating threats from the president to control Greenland by any means necessary — including by force, if left with no other choice.
Now, “the military’s not on the table,” Trump told reporters at the economic forum in Switzerland, acknowledging sighs of relief throughout the room.
“I don’t think it will be necessary,” he said. “I really don’t. I think people are going to use better judgment.”
It was a turn of events that came as welcome news in Nuuk, where signs hang in storefronts and kitchen windows rejecting American imperialism.
“It’s difficult to say what are negotiating tactics, and what the foundation is for him saying all of this,” said Finn Meinel, an attorney born and raised in the Greenlandic capital. “It could be that joint pressure from the EU and NATO countries has made an impact, as well as the economic numbers in the states. Maybe that has had an influence.”
President Trump speaks during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Wednesday.
(Evan Vucci / Associated Press)
In his speech at Davos, Trump took note of the market turmoil his threats against Greenland had caused entering the conference. Announcing the agreement framework on social media Wednesday, he said he would pause punitive tariffs planned against longstanding European allies that had refused to support his demands.
Prominent world leaders — including from Canada, France and the United Kingdom, among Washington’s closest allies — had warned earlier this week that Trump’s militant threats against a fellow NATO member were ushering in a new era of global order accommodating a less reliable United States.
For years, Trump has called for U.S. ownership over Greenland due to its strategic position in the Arctic Circle, where ice melting due to climate change is making way for a new era of competition with Russia and China. An Arctic conflict, the president says, will require a robust U.S. presence there.
While the president rejects climate change and its perils as a hoax, he has embraced the opportunities that may come with the melting of Greenland’s ice sheet, the world’s largest after Antarctica, including the opening of new shipping lanes and defense positions.
The United States already enjoys broad freedom to deploy any defense assets it sees fit across the island, raising questions in Europe over Trump’s fixation on outright sovereignty over the land.
“We want a piece of ice for world protection, and they won’t give it. We’ve never asked for anything else,” Trump said, addressing members of the NATO alliance.
“I don’t want to use force. I won’t use force,” Trump said. But Europe still has a choice. “You can say yes, and we will be very appreciative,” he continued, “or you can say no, and we will remember.”
Share via
The day before Trump’s speech, allies warned about a “rupture” in a global order in which the United States could be relied upon as a force of good. Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, in a speech Tuesday characterized Trump’s push to acquire Greenland as an example of why “the old order is not coming back.”
Trump apparently took note of Carney’s remarks, and told the crowd on Wednesday that Canada “should be grateful.”
“But they are not,” Trump said. “Canada lives because of the United States. Remember that, Mark, the next time you make your statements.”
The president struck a similar tone with his demands for Greenland, repeatedly characterizing the United States as a “great power” compared with Denmark in its ability to protect the Arctic territory. At one point, he cited the American military’s role in World War II to justify his demands, telling the eastern Swiss audience that, “without us, you’d all be speaking German, or a little Japanese perhaps.”
It was a slight carried forward by the president’s treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, who derided Copenhagen for its decision to divest from U.S. treasuries. “Denmark’s investment in U.S. treasury bonds like Denmark itself is irrelevant,” the secretary said.
In several instances, Trump framed the transatlantic alliance as one that benefits other countries more than the United States.
“We will be with NATO 100%, but I’m not sure they will be there for us,” Trump said. But NATO Secretary Gen. Mark Rutte responded to the concern in their meeting, noting that the alliance’s Article 5 commitment to joint defense has only been invoked once — by the United States, after the September 11th attacks. “Let me tell you: they will,” Rutte said.
But Trump expanded on his thinking over Greenland in his speech to the summit, describing his fixation on Greenland as “psychological,” and questioning why the United States would come to the island’s defense if its only investment was a licensing agreement.
“There’s no sign of Denmark there. And I say that with great respect for Denmark, whose people I love, whose leaders are very good,” Trump said. “It’s the United States alone that can protect this giant, massive land – this giant piece of ice – develop it, and improve it, and make it so that it’s good for Europe, and safe for Europe, and good for us.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom was among the people in the audience reacting to Trump’s remarks in real time. The president’s speech, he told CNN afterward, was “remarkably boring” and “remarkably insignificant.”
“He was never going invade Greenland. It was never real,” Newsom said. “That was always a fake.”
Wilner reported from Nuuk, Ceballos from Washington, D.C.
