Obama got an icy blast from the Washington Post after the city's most famous incomer expressed disbelief that his daughters' school had shut down Wednesday -- in line with schools in the city's suburbs -- because of "some ice."

"Mr Obama can make pronouncements from inside his well-shoveled bubble, but we can report that it was pretty treacherous out there in the real world," the Post wrote in an editorial after a number of road accidents.

"School administrators who opted for closure made the right call -- this time. To the Obamas, we say: Welcome to Washington, and, hey, you have it easy. At least one parent has the flexibility to work from home," the newspaper said.

The president said Wednesday his new city needed to acquire some "toughness" from his hometown Chicago, where winters are long, deep, and bitterly cold.

But as several residents wrote on the Post's website, Washington, unlike northern cities like Chicago, is not geared for the kind of bone-chilling ice storm that engulfed the region this week.

And while the city's tendency to panic at the first snowflake is a familiar bone of complaint for natives and newcomers alike, local authorities insisted that the rink-like roads posed a deadly danger.

Washington mayor Adrian Fenty, who is depending on Obama to give city residents voting rights in Congress, said the decision to delay Wednesday's opening of downtown schools for two hours was not taken lightly.

"We remain sensitive to the needs of families who are not able to arrange child care when schools must unexpectedly close and to the children who depend on a healthy meal (at school)," he said.

Obama's daughters, Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, attend the private Sidwell Friends School. It follows the weather closure policy of schools in the city's Maryland suburbs, which were all shut down Tuesday and Wednesday.