PHOTO: Rocket Through the Snowy Stars

Montgomery County Public Schools canceled all evening school activities on Tuesday, postponing the night's high school sports schedule and leaving just one Richard Montgomery High School Rocket in action — or appearing to be in action.

As the snow fell around it on late Tuesday, the rocket, which stands near the school's athletic fields, appeared to be hurtling through the Milky Way.

Despite the cancellation of school-related activities, school buildings remained open for community use on Tuesday (and their opening was delayed by two hours on Wednesday). The heaviest snowfall fell late in the evening rush and caused few problems for commuters.

Motorists — and attendees of the city's open house on the Rockville Pike draft plan (check Rockville Patch for more on that later) — found wet pavement and some icy patches on Rockville Pike as the storm skirted the Mid-Atlantic and headed for New York and New England, where residents were bracing for forecasts of blizzard conditions on Wednesday.

The rocket is actually an old Nike Ajax missile, according to a history on Richard Montgomery's Web site by social studies teacher Robert Hines.

"These missiles once ringed Washington DC in the 1950s and early 1960s to protect the capital from approaching enemy aircraft," Hines wrote.

The image seemed appropriate for Tuesday night when over the National Capital Region.

So if you hear a boom one night this week, it probably isn't thunder snow. It's likely an F-16.