High Winds

For the second time this month, Maryland boaters and fishermen are faced with the dangerous potential of a tropical weather system, as Floyd moves north from the Carolinas.Whether Floyd passes through as hurricane, tropical storm or tropical depression, boaters and anglers should be cautious, because in all cases, heavy rainfall, high winds and storm tides or flash floods are possible.According to U.S. Coast Guard guidelines, the first rule of safety when a hurricane or storm surge approaches, is to "get off the open water, as far away from the storm as possible, and never stay with your boat."

Marylanders braced today for torrential rains, high winds, pounding surf and bayshore flooding as Hurricane Floyd bore down on the state after crashing ashore early this morning in North Carolina.Tropical storm warnings were posted from Baltimore County south to Southern Maryland, the Chesapeake Bay north of the Virginia line, the entire Eastern Shore and Ocean City. Sustained winds are expected to reach 40 to 50 mph today in Baltimore, and 50 to 70 mph on the Shore with higher gusts. Twenty-foot surf was likely at the beaches.

The 113-year-old skipjack Rebecca T. Ruark sank in rough waters and high winds yesterday after a successful day of oystering about 2 miles off Tilghman Island.Captain Wade Murphy Jr. and three crew members out of Crisfield were rescued by Tilghman Island neighbors about 5 p.m. as the Ruark filled with water when a wind storm knocked out its sails and it sprang a leak.No one was injured, although the day's harvest of some 60 bushels of oysters was lost.This morning, divers will try to raise the $100,000 skipjack -- one of fewer than a dozen of the rake-masted vessels left on Tilghman -- out of 20 feet of water near Bar Neck.

With Hurricane Floyd likely to bring high winds and heavy rain to Anne Arundel County, officials shut schools, canceled community meetings, told county workers to stay home and readied emergency shelters at opposite ends of the county.Private businesses and residents also went into hurricane preparation mode yesterday.The National Weather Service is predicting winds of 40 to 60 mph, 3 to 6 inches of rain, flooding in low-lying areas of the eastern part of the county and possible flash floods elsewhere.

OCEAN CITY -- Despite the dire weather predictions, Tropical Storm Dennis seemed to do little to dampen the enthusiasm of the beach crowd that flocked here for the Labor Day holiday weekend.After a dreary, drizzly morning, the clouds broke yesterday and there was -- yes -- sun."We were coming whether it was going to be ugly or not," said Robin Griffith of Hollidaysburg, Pa., after shooing away a sea gull that was munching from a bag of potato chips on her beach towel."We got up this morning, and it was kind of gloomy," she said.

Hurricane Floyd shut down the Anne Arundel County Fair in Crownsville today for the first time in its 47-year history.The storm's high winds, the governor's declaration of a state of emergency and the announcement that county schools would be closed today helped in the decision, said fair manager John Kozenski Jr.Kozenski also recalled that keeping the fair open at Sandy Point State Park during a storm several years ago proved to be a disaster as tents were...

"Baltimore today should feel the effects of the hurricane which is moving up the Atlantic Coast, the Weather Bureau announced last night," The Sun reported on Sept. 21, 1938."There is no indication, however, that the storm will be violent in the local area, as the city is too far inland to get much more than the fringes of the high winds. The strongest winds predicted were for gales -- below hurricane force -- on Cape Hatteras," concluded news reports.While the storm -- hurricanes did not have names back then -- had seemingly slipped by Maryland with only minor rainfall and gusty winds on the Eastern Shore, it would eventually enter the record books as one of the most deadly and costly ever to hit New England before blowing itself out over Canada.

Windy weather caused scattered power outages in Maryland yesterday, but forecasters -- predicting flurries for the Baltimore area this morning -- are looking ahead to a winter storm that could bring snow, sleet and freezing rain by the weekend.The National Weather Service predicted snow showers to begin in Western Maryland and, though they expected New Year's Day to be clear and cold, meteorologists said Saturday would likely bring strong winds and icy precipitation.Tom Dougherty, a National Weather Service meteorologist stationed in Sterling, Va., said today's low will be in the upper teens to low 20s with highs in the lower 30s and winds about 10 mph. Tomorrow will be partly sunny, but Saturday and Sunday are expected to bring a mixture of snow, sleet and freezing rain, with lows in the mid-20s, he said.

If Hurricane Bonnie slams into North Carolina's Outer Banks today, a Johns Hopkins University civil engineer will be ready to make unprecedented measurements of the storm's fury.Professor Nicholas P. Jones and his students have fitted a test building in Southern Shores, just north of Kitty Hawk, with a flock of instruments designed to monitor the structure as it strains in the storm's winds.If the building and its sensors survive their first test under hurricane conditions, they should provide a wealth of data on how low-rise structures respond to high winds, and how their designs might be improved.

A storm that swept through Maryland yesterday knocked out power to thousands of homes, slowed traffic and closed Howard County government.The storm hit hardest in Howard County, where high winds knocked a tree into a power line in Ellicott City and cut power to 10,000 customers shortly after 2 p.m., said Kathleen Nolan, a Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. spokeswoman.By 11 p.m., power was restored to all but 100 customers, who should have service by this morning, Nolan said.The downed tree, between Ellicott Mills Road and Rogers Avenue, cut power to stores along Ellicott City's Main Street, which remained open.

Ocean City was pounded late Thursday by heavy rains and high winds from a severe nor'easter that was causing moderate to heavy flooding from rain and tides. With a high-pressure system blocking its path to the north, the storm was lingering over the resort and dumping large amounts of rain. Chris Strong, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sterling, Va., said the worst of the storm was expected to hit Thursday night and this morning, and then start easing later in the day. "This thing should blow away entirely by the end of Saturday," he said.

High winds across the Baltimore metropolitan region yesterday canceled New Year's Eve fireworks, caused power outages in thousands of homes, flipped a tractor-trailer on a major bridge and toppled branches that hindered the movement of the light rail. The National Weather Service issued a high-wind warning yesterday morning until 10 o'clock last night, cautioning that winds would top 40 mph, with gusts as high as 60 mph. At midnight, instead of fireworks, several confetti guns were fired at the Inner Harbor as Mayor Sheila Dixon and the crowd, bundled up against the cold, counted down to the new year.

Rain and heavy winds from the fringes of a major storm system hit parts of Maryland last night as emergency management officials prepared for several inches of rainfall expected today in the central and southern parts of the state. Officials in Annapolis and other low-lying areas braced for possible flooding and wind gusts up to 40 mph by employing a public works crew around the clock last night. Sandbags were placed along City Dock businesses, city officials said, and 75 more were piled near the Second Street pumping station.

Several tornadoes ripped through the state yesterday as part of a weather system that killed one person in the Washington area, tore roofs off buildings, crushed cars, uprooted trees, collapsed a loading crane and disrupted public transportation throughout the region. Officials from the National Weather Service in Sterling, Va., said they received reports of tornadoes touching down in Severna Park and near the Bay Bridge. Meteorologist Luis Rosa reported extensive damage to homes in Severna Park by evening but said no damage to the bridge had been reported.

Maryland Thousand lose power to winds High winds led to power outages for more than 63,000 BGE customers yesterday. The blustery weather started about 2 a.m., when the first customers began to lose power, said Linda Foy, a spokeswoman for BGE. She said there could be more outages today because of high winds. The weather forecast called for gusts up to 50 mph. Between 2 a.m. and 9 p.m. yesterday, 26,615 customers in the greater Baltimore region lost power but had it restored. Another 37,170 were still waiting for their lights to come back on, according to the BGE Web site.

Cold winds whipping around in the wake of a departing storm system yesterday caught Marylanders in a swirl of blowing leaves and trash, power outages and highway wind restrictions. Trees toppled in wind gusts as high as 51 mph in some locations, and the blustery weather was expected to continue into today. Call it a prelude to more wintry weather tomorrow as an "Alberta Clipper" moves in with a dusting of snow here, and several inches in mountainous Western Maryland. But forecasters said things should improve after that.

The backswing of an unusual spring nor'easter that dumped 3 to 5 inches of rain Sunday buffeted Maryland again yesterday - this time with high winds that snapped trees and power lines, cutting service at one point to more than 60,000 electricity customers and forcing some schools to close. The storm slowly spun up the coast yesterday but stalled over Long Island, kicking back to Maryland steady winds of 25 mph to 30 mph for most of the day and gusts clocked at 50 mph to 60 mph, said meteorologist Steven Zubrick of the National Weather Service office in Sterling, Va. "This is the same system that's responsible for the rain, and it has extremely low pressure, which means high winds," Zubrick said.

Can't help feeling this week like we're getting away with something. The 2006 Atlantic hurricane season ends Thursday, and it's been nearly two months since we've even had a storm (Isaac) to talk about. The season tallied just nine named storms, and only the last five reached hurricane strength; most remained at sea. Only the remnants of Hurricane Ernesto triggered headaches here. The Sept. 1-2 tempest brought flooding and high winds that downed trees and power lines. Ernie's 3.63 inches of rain ended a drought.

NEW YORK -- Arriving in a blaze of thunder and lightning and dropping staggering snowfalls from Virginia to Maine, the nor'easter of 2006 roared up the East Coast yesterday, staging a spectacular show that shocked a region lulled by the mildest winter in years. "For those of you who thought snow would never arrive - you were wrong," said a deadpan Michael R. Bloomberg, the mayor of New York. The storm, delivering 26.9 inches, broke New York City's previous record for a single snowfall, 26.4 inches, set in 1947.

ORLANDO, Fla. -- NASA will try again today to launch its New Horizons spacecraft on a nine-year journey to Pluto, with a planned 1:16 p.m. liftoff from Cape Canaveral. A launch attempt was canceled yesterday because of high winds, and forecasters are calling for a 70 percent chance of good conditions today. Isolated thunderstorms and high winds are the main concerns. The $700 million mission has until Feb. 14 to launch. If all goes well, the spacecraft will fly near Pluto in 2015 and gather the first close-up images and data on the icy world.