Snow in all 50 states? New storm could make that true.

Less controversial were the communal dig-outs taking place across Washington. Shovelers dubbed the comity “snowcialism.”

More seriously, the storms are likely to nip American taxpayers as city and states burn through their snow-clearing budgets.

“[S]end dough for snow,” Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D) of Maryland wrote in a plea to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

The culprit, it appears, is a strong Pacific El Niño pattern that has stirred up a boatload of moisture rolling across Mexico, into the Gulf, and up through the South. All that is now colliding on a regular basis with unusually deep dips of Arctic air.

At the same time, much of the Midwest is experiencing a comparatively mild snow season – even as Vancouver, British Columbia, is having to truck in snow for some of its Olympic events.

Other notable events in this topsy-turvy season: The South saw one of the first big storms, frozen iguanas fell out of trees in Florida, and snowfall records were broken in a dozen cities including Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Washington.

And winter is barely halfway over. (Punxsutawney Phil, after all, said we have at least six more weeks of winter to go.)

“The snow blitz ... is truly a rare event that has no parallel in the historic record,” wrote Weather Underground’s Jeff Masters Friday morning.

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