Inches Of Snow

Up to 5 inches of snow fell overnight in downtown Baltimore and the surrounding area, keeping work crews up as they cleared major roadways. The snow began subsiding about 1 a.m. Wednesday as the storm headed northeast, but the National Weather Service forecast office in Sterling, Va., this afternoon posted a winter storm watch for nearly all of Maryland west of the Chesapeake Bay, warning of the possibility of more than a foot of snow — and...

One of Baltimore's most unforgettable winter weather episodes brought the city to its knees with a total accumulation of 4 inches of snow and no ice. Several weeks ago, I recalled that incident, headlined "the worst jam in history," using this paper's news accounts. Here are some better versions, in the words of those who trekked home that Friday afternoon on Dec. 14, 1951: From former Sun sports writer Jim Henneman: "As a junior in high school, I left the old Calvert Hall, Cathedral and Mulberry, at mid-afternoon, headed for our varsity basketball game that had not been postponed.

Calvert County got 13 inches, St. Mary's 11 and Anne Arundel 8 1/2 . It wasn't the typical Baltimore-area snowfall pattern, but some of the southernmost regions of the metro area saw about a dozen inches of snow yesterday, while areas north of the city experienced less than half of that. Baltimore County reported 4.8 to 7 inches, and Baltimore had less than 3 inches, said Calvin Meadows, meteorological technician for the National Weather Service's Baltimore/Washington Forecast Office in Sterling, Va. Meadows said that although the pattern might seem out of the ordinary, a storm's route and temperature can vary, determining which areas get more snow.

Fred Weiss reads the newspaper in Baltimore and wonders: "The Sunpapers shows only 0.2 inches of snow for January on their Weather Page. Is that correct? Is that based on snow at BWI?" Yas the Jan. 19 storm that dropped 2 to 3 inches nort and west of the city, and sent motorists skidding, left oly a dusting at BWI. But that's the station of record. So officially we've had just 0.8 inch so far this winter. Pitiful

A fast-moving storm dropped snow on Maryland yesterday, snarling roads, slowing commutes, closing schools and creating blizzard-like conditions in some areas. The falling snow combined with midday traffic to make commutes horrendous and complicate efforts of highway crews clearing roads in some areas. "Traffic is slowing us down. The heavy snow came all at once," said Bill Malone, chief of Howard County's Bureau of Highways. Flights at BWI Marshall Airport were delayed up to an hour so planes could be cleared of ice. At least 5 inches of snow fell in Columbia and parts of Carroll County, and at least 4 inches fell at Fort Meade, Owings Mills and Darlington, the National Weather Service reported.

Snow, in manageable amounts, is the more innocent of the frozen troublemakers of winter - and what better day than a Sunday to have it. Particularly when the alternative of more ice than snow had been predicted. In contrast to the icy coating left by the Valentine's Day storm - a reprise of which weather forecasters had feared - yesterday's storm spread a less dangerous white blanket, but the possibility remained for slippery conditions before temperatures rise above freezing today. The unexpected snowfall accounted for the highest accumulations of the season: 5.3 inches in Columbia, 4.3 inches at BWI Marshall Airport, more than 3 inches in downtown Baltimore, 2.5 inches in Towson and Bel Air, and 2 inches in Carroll County, according to the National Weather Service.

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