Inches

Marylanders may cringe at news of yet another snowstorm next week. But the Alberta Clipper due here Monday might hardly warrant a shrug after what we've been through in the past week. "We do think it will be all snow," said Stephen Konarik, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service forecast office in Sterling, Va. "It does look potent enough to cause some accumulation, but it doesn't look like a lot. Several inches are not out of the question." "Several inches" is what fell in an hour during parts of the back-to-back storms that have unloaded 44 inches at the airport in the past week.

Four young men broke into the Stadium Place YMCA in Waverly early Tuesday and stole a 60-inch television, a portable oxygen tank and food, and also damaged a vending and bank machine, Baltimore police said Wednesday. A spokeswoman for the YMCA of Central Maryland had said on Tuesday that the break-in was confined to the lobby of the building on East 33rd Street, the site of the old Memorial Stadium. She had declined to say if anything was taken, but said damage was quickly cleaned up. The police report details far more extensive damage.

A cold air pocket collided last night with moisture left from Thursday's snow storm, causing more snow to begin falling in northwestern Maryland shortly after 11 p.m.One to 2 inches of snow were expected to accumulate across Central Maryland by dawn, according to Calvin Meadows, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Sterling, Va.The snow began falling in southwest Virginia about 8 p.m. and moved into Maryland, he said.Meadows predicted that Garrett and Allegany counties would be the hardest-hit areas in the state, with up to 3 inches of snow.

He didn't fall — but it looked like he came close. Daredevil Nik Wallenda made it nearly all the way across a wire over the Inner Harbor, stepping steadily and deliberately, when he stopped to kneel and pump his fist in the air. He was walking 300 feet across, up to 82 feet in the air, in a stunt to mark the imminent opening of a Ripley's Believe It or Not museum. The rapt crowd, cell phone cameras in the air, sighed with relief. But their celebration — and Wallenda's, too — was premature.

Baseball, famously, is a game of numbers: 56, 715 and 2,131 all have staked out their places in the lore. Then there are the eternals: the 90 feet between bases and the 60 feet, 6 inches between the pitching rubber and home plate. A number less often discussed is 10 - since 1969, the regulation height, in inches, of every pitcher's mound in the major leagues. On the game's current landscape, few figures are the subject of more debate. After the 1968 season, when pitchers such as Bob Gibson and Denny McLain ruled the big leagues, baseball lowered the mound by a third, and hitting made an instant comeback.

The winter that just won't quit dropped about 4 inches of snow on metropolitan Baltimore yesterday morning, took one life and unleashed an Arctic cold front that may produce record-breaking low temperatures this weekend.Yesterday's snowfall, the result of a fast-moving storm that moved up the East Coast as frigid air pushed in from the northwest, was limited to the Washington-Baltimore corridor, National Weather Service forecasters in Sterling, Va., said.Snowfall ranged from 4.1 inches at Baltimore-Washington International Airport to 2 inches at Riviera Beach in Anne Arundel County and an inch in Frederick.

There will be no rest for the snow-weary in Maryland as a storm with the potential to drop 10 to 20 inches of new snow bears down on a region still reeling from the 24 inches and more that fell over the weekend. The National Weather Service issued Winter Storm Warnings on Monday for all of Maryland west of the Chesapeake Bay, calling for light snow to begin mid- to late afternoon today. Forecasters said it should intensify early Wednesday morning as colder air moves into the region, and continue throughout the day. If this storm tops 20 inches at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, it would be the third such pummeling this season, a trifecta unprecedented in Maryland weather history.

Winter's first major storm churned through the Baltimore region yesterday, and the 6 to 8 inches of powdery snow it dropped are expected to blow and drift today. Steady winds will whip at 25 to 30 mph throughout much of the day, and gusts will hit 45 mph, according to the National Weather Service. "It's going to be very windy and cold," said David Manning, warning coordination meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Sterling, Va. Wind chill will make it feel like it's close to zero early today, he said.

Look out your window.If there is snow, the weather forecasters were right. If not, well.A large storm was expected to move northeast from Alabama last night and dump as much as 6 inches of snow in the Baltimore area beginning in the early morning. A foot of snow was predicted to hit Western Maryland, and about 2 inches were expected in southern parts of the state.State and city highway crews are on standby, ready to plow and salt the streets when -- and if -- the snow hits."We'll bring in some folks early, and then we will bring in more people" if the weather worsens, said Valerie Burnette Edgar, a spokeswoman for the State Highway Administration.

Skiers and sledders frolicked in several feet of snow this weekend as Maryland's two westernmost counties dug out of their heaviest snowfall in recent memory.By yesterday evening, most of Garrett and Allegany counties' primary and secondary roads were clear, snow emergencies had been lifted, and power had been restored to more than 100,000 customers from a storm that began before sunrise Thursday and ended early yesterday.In an area that yawns at snow forecasts and measures accumulation in feet rather than inches, most interviewed yesterday said that this was the biggest snowfall they could remember in 10 years or more, although official figures weren't available yesterday from the National Weather Service.

The sun is out and skies are blue Tuesday, and that must mean the nor'easter that wetted the region this weekend has passed. The storm's precipitation was much-needed, though it didn't solve all of the state's drought problems in one fell swoop. The official count at BWI Marshall Airport was 1.4 inches from Saturday afternoon through Monday. That cut down the deficit from normal rain levels to about 4 inches, with 8.34 inches so far this year and 12.41 inches in a normal year.

Maryland employers added 1,500 jobs in March — thanks entirely to growth in the private sector — but the state's unemployment rate inched up as the pool of would-be workers expanded more rapidly. The jobless rate was 6.6 percent in March, up from 6.5 percent in February, the U.S. Department of Labor estimated Friday. That's because the labor force, the number of adults working or looking for work, grew by 4,200 people in March, according to the agency. An improving economic situation typically brings out more job seekers, as people who had been discouraged by earlier difficulties get back in the hunt.

Though occasional flurries fell in Baltimore throughout the afternoon and evening, the city was spared the predicted snow accumulation that brought out the salt trucks and sent people home early from work and school. What happened to the winter weather forecast for Wednesday? "There was a larger mass of warm air invecting inland than expected," said National Weather Service meteorologist Matthew Kramar, who is stationed in Sterling, Va. That warm air coming off the ocean pushed the rain-snow line farther west, leaving Baltimore with a wintry mix that was mostly rain, he said.

While the good intentions of a "plastic bag tax" for store shopping bags to prevent pollution is admirable, I do take one issue to Mr. Pasalic's letter (Leader, Jan. 19). Specifically the line "five cents never put anyone into poverty. " One thing is for certain, once you give the government an inch with taxes, they eventually take the mile. Take a look at your phone bill. Many years back the government said, "We're gonna add just a teeny weeny tax on your phone bill. It's just a few cents and it's for the children's education!"

Brief snow showers that fell Tuesday afternoon are creating slick roads in Baltimore and its surrounding counties, according the National Weather Service. Road temperatures at or below freezing in Baltimore County, Harford, Howard and Carroll counties will cause water freeze and cause icy spots, the special weather statement Tuesday evening said. According to the State Highway Administration, Interstate 695 northeast of Baltimore and Interstate 83 north of the beltway are moving slowly because of the snow flurries.

The National Weather Service has posted a winter storm watch for Saturday for all of Western Maryland, and for the northern tier of counties, including Carroll, Frederick, Harford and northern Baltimore County. The watch called for the "potential" of 5 or more inches of snow in portions of the state on Saturday, beginning overnight Friday as rain, then changing to snow Saturday morning and continuing through Saturday afternoon. The weather service predicted a small pocket of 6-inch accumulations in extreme northwestern Carroll and northeastern Frederick, surrounded by gradually diminishing totals of 4-, 2- and 1-inch totals.

Maryland's unemployment rate in September continued to inch upward for the fourth straight month, according to U.S. Labor Department data released Friday. But economists saw positive signs in the fact that more people reported that they were in the workforce. The Maryland jobless rate rose to 7.4 percent last month from 7.3 percent in August. This year's low was 6.8 percent in May. Because the jobless rate is based on a survey that asks whether people are employed or looking for work, the increase could indicate that discouraged workers who had been sitting on the sidelines have resumed their job search.

Alyssa Parker comes running across the field with joy in every stride. When she gets to the sideline, the Glenelg senior catches her breath and before anyone can say anything, she asks, "Do you know that bees are born full grown?" She loves trivia like that - and the laughs she draws from imparting such nuggets. Parker, one of the most talented players to ever play field hockey in Maryland, isn't shy off the field. And one would think she wouldn't be shy on the field either, given that she's about to become only the second player in National Federation history to score 100 goals and 100 assists in a high school career.