Inches Of Snow

A few inches of snow might accumulate in the Baltimore metropolitan area late tonight and possibly through Tuesday morning, the National Weather Service said.Fear not, say the federal prognosticators, for the precipitation should change to sleet and eventually to rain by tomorrow.Ken Shaver, a forecaster stationed at Baltimore-Washington International Airport, said an "inch or two" might fall before rising temperatures change the snow to slush."There might be more of an accumulation north and west of the city, but the major part of any storm will be seen in Western Maryland where there is a winter watch in effect," Mr. Shaver said.

A late-season storm was forecast to bring the first significant snowfall in Baltimore in two years Wednesday, prompting worries about travel difficulties and power outages from the wet, heavy flakes and strong wind. The National Weather Service forecasts snowfall of 6 to 12 inches north and west of Interstate 95, though a rain mix along the I-95 corridor could reduce accumulations. The storm, which dumped nearly a foot of snow on the northern Plains states, could bring intense bands of heavier precipitation in some areas, forecasters warned.

Snow accumulating 1 to 3 inches is forecast for Central Maryland starting late tonight, continuing tomorrow and possibly lingering through Tuesday, the National Weather Service said yesterday.A winter storm approaching from the Deep South is expected to dump most of the snow south of Washington, where accumulations could reach 8 inches.The storm also will bring markedly colder weather to Central Maryland.Today's high in the Baltimore area probably won't get above 30, with tomorrow's top temperature in the mid-20s, the National Weather Service predicted.

See updated story here. Forecasters are predicting another round of unusually light and fluffy snow Friday, potentially a few inches of it across the region this time, though some began to second-guess the forecast Thursday afternoon. Unlike Thursday morning's snow, the moisture for Friday's system will be coming from the south, something that generally means more snow for the Baltimore area. The snowfall could be on par with Thursday's morning's accumulation, though the system could intensify dropping heavier snowfall in isolated spots, according to the National Weather Service.

With cold air firmly in place, and a storm gathering to our south, Marylanders are bracing today for what could be the season's first measurable snowfall, and potentially the biggest snowstorm in nearly three years. "Some could receive a little more, some a little less. But on average it appears likely enough the area will be receiving somewhere in the ballpark of 5 inches," said meteorologist Howard Silverman, of the National Weather Service's Sterling, Va., forecast office. A developing storm system was expected to move across the Southeast today and reorganize off the Carolina coast, generating snow and ice from Georgia to New England today and tomorrow.

Baltimore-area residents awoke to 2 to 10 inches of snow yesterday, depending on where they live. Carroll County received the most: 10 inches in Manchester and 8 inches in Westminster. Baltimore County had 6 to 7 inches and Columbia and Bel Air registered 4 inches. Although this has been a cold winter -- December was the seventh coldest on record since 1871 -- the area has had less snowfall than normal, the National Weather Service says. At Baltimore-Washington International Airport, which has typically recorded 10 inches of snow or more by this point, 3.1 inches -- including 1.9 yesterday -- have fallen this winter.

We'd rather have snow. But the weather has changed over the years, and we have to get more creative." - STEVE CRONE, owner of New England Dogsledding in Mason Township, Maine, who copes with a lack of snowfall by having his eight Alaskan huskies pull tourists in a gray golf cart instead of a dogsled; Mr. Crone says he needs 6 to 12 inches of snow to run the sleds properly

Meteorologist Rich Hitchens was monitoring a winter storm headed for Baltimore on three computer screens last night. "It's on its way," he said of a warm-air system from the Gulf of Mexico on a collision course with the cold air over the Mid-Atlantic region. The storm could bolster this month's snow total significantly. It is expected to blanket Central Maryland with 6 to 10 inches of snow before midnight, when it would push north, Hitchens said from the National Weather Service office in Sterling, Va. Forecasters declared a heavy snow warning for 24 hours starting at 1 a.m. today but said the bulk of the snow would fall between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. The new snow was unlikely to set records, but even a little would push Baltimore over the average of 6.4 inches for February snowfall.

Jupiter and Venus are in close conjunction this weekend, low in the southeast just before sunrise. A crescent moon joins them Sunday. It's a pretty farewell to January, which saw just 2.4 inches of snow at BWI Marshall Airport. Temperatures were 3 degrees above long-term averages for Baltimore. That masked the wild swings, from 70 degrees Jan. 7 and 8 to the low of 8 degrees on the 21st. But smile. We're still 11 percent to the good on our heating demand for the season.

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.

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.

Up to an inch of snow is predicted for high elevations in the western half of Garrett County from late Saturday through early Sunday, according to National Weather Service forecasts. Precipitation became a wintry mix in the evening and is expected to change to all snow overnight, according to the forecast. Snow is expected as far north as Grantsville, near the Pennsylvania border, and as far south as Oakland. The weather service reports that the warm ground will limit snow accumulations but that an inch of snow is possible on higher ridges.

This much seems unavoidable: The Alberta clipper steaming across the plains states will bring the Mid-Atlantic states more snow today and Tuesday. What remains unclear is just how much snow the region can expect from the fourth winter storm of the month. The National Weather Service released a forecast midday Sunday predicting 2 inches to 4 inches in the Baltimore area, beginning as a rainy mixture early tonight before turning to all snow and trailing off Tuesday morning. The chance of precipitation, the weather service said, was 90 percent.

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.

Transit services coming back slowly Updated at 4:35 p.m. Mass transit service in Maryland was making a slow recovery from the weekend's snowstorm. with light rail offering service to a limited number of stations this afternoon and about 20 percent of local buses operating on primary routes only. Maryland Transportation Secretary Beverly Swaim-Staley said Baltimore's Metro is continuing to run on the underground part between Mondawmin Mall and Johns Hopkins Hospital -- as it did Saturday -- but she said the aboveground stretch to Owings Mills would be closed all day and into tomorrow.