Bad Weather

Joie Chitwood is a weather guy this time of year, constantly checking for updates online. Will it rain? Will there be lightning? Will bad weather steal the thunder from his nighttime spectacle Saturday night? "Those are the elements that you have to deal with," Chitwood, president of Daytona International Speedway, said Tuesday. "You can come up with every plan you want to, but the weather is the wild card. It's very frustrating. As I start looking at weather updates 10 days out, all it does is create more concern, but hopefully we'll get lucky.

WHILE IT WAS no Los Angeles earthquake, the ice storm and frigid weather that settled on the Northeast last week was also a reminder of mankind's helplessness when Mother Nature decides to become Mommie Dearest. The record-setting storm wreaked havoc on the homeless, on families whose loved ones were killed or injured in weather-related accidents, on the demand for power and on the ability of the resolute letter carriers to deliver the mail. Bad weather is a perennial topic of conversation, but this was something worse, something more frightening.

Every once in a while, we get a sharp reminder that mankind is not "in charge" on this planet ("Post-storm swelter," July 2). After the storms of the last few days, a quarter-million people are without power in Maryland alone, with a total of about 3 million along the East Coast. Somehow, every single one of the people think they should be first in line to have their electricity turned back on. Most of the damage was caused by winds of near-hurricane force knocking down and uprooting trees.

Werner A. Uebersax, a retired Catonsville Community College electronics department chairman and former aeronautical engineer, died in his sleep of stroke complications Saturday at the Blakehurst Retirement Community. He was 91 and had lived in Sparks. Born in Baltimore, he grew up in the rowhouse alongside his father's Fenwick Bakery, then located off Harford Road near Clifton Park. When he and a brother, Walter, contracted typhoid fever, his father and mother closed the bakery for more than two months and nursed their sons to health.

When snowflakes start accumulating along with the excitement that school might close, parents should reach for the dial -- the one on the radio, not the phone.The television's OK, too, but please, not the phone, says James Doolan, supervisor of transportation for Carroll County schools."They tie up the phones -- we don't want parents calling the office or calling the schools at all," Mr. Doolan said.The clogged lines and time spent answering the phones burden officials rushing to get the word on the air, he said.

Sometimes it's not as great being "America in Miniature" as Maryland's tourist slogan proclaims. That varied landscape creates weather patterns that complicate forecasting. It's been reflected lately in the sudden icing of the highways Christmas night, this week's on-again-off-again snow and in the gale that swamped a fishing boat in the Chesapeake Bay a few weeks ago.Neither bit of bad weather was unpredicted, but each had an unanticipated twist. The little dusting of snow expected by Christmas drivers was joined by sheets of ice that sent cars spinning and skidding.

Bad weather -- snow, sleet and freezing rain -- is heading our way, says the National Weather Service at Baltimore-Washington International Airport.A winter storm warning has been issued for central Maryland and northern sections, including the Baltimore metropolitan area.A spokesman for the weather service at BWI said this morning that snow from the Shenandoah Valley was "spreading into Frederick County. Hagerstown called and said they were getting some light stuff. We're also getting a lower cloud deck, which indicates the potential for precipitation to start any time."

Where have all the houses gone?After suffering with an excess of for-sale properties for two years, real estate executives throughout the Baltimore area are now reporting a surprising drop in supply."

Last weekend's break from inclement weather had Steven Baum at Greetings & Readings seeing something his business had been sorely missing: customers. Baum, president of the Loch Raven Plaza store that specializes in cards, gifts and books, said it was the first "normalized" weekend he'd seen in weeks. "It still wasn't normal, but you're starting to see people coming out again," Baum said. "They were getting cagey from being locked in. You could see it in their eyes. Now their attitudes are different, their demeanor's different.

THE COMBINATION of a few drops of rain and a frigid landscape triggered nearly 150 highway accidents during a single morning rush hour last week in Howard County as cars and trucks spun, flipped and collided on black ice. The trouble offered a compelling reminder that treacherous weather is always lurking just around the corner. Beyond cursing the weatherman, there is a lot you can do to protect yourself against joining the ranks of winter's traffic victims. Here are some rules that could save your life some snowy morning: If your car is due for regular service, don't wait to do it until after you have been stranded in bad weather and trapped in your stalled vehicle waiting hours for road service.