Potomac River

The National Weather Service is calling for Tuesday to be rainy in the Baltimore area, with a high near 66 degrees and south winds of 8 to 11 miles per hour. Showers will come mainly after 10 a.m. The chance of precipitation is 100 percent. Rainfall amounts of between a quarter of an inch and half an inch are possible. A small craft advisory is in effect for the tidal Potomac River and Maryland Chesapeake Bay Tuesday and Tuesday night. Minor coastal flooding is possible Tuesday evening along the tidal Potomac River and western shore of the Maryland Chesapeake Bay. Tuesday night will be mostly cloudy, with a low around 41 and south winds of 5 to 10 miles per hour.

The National Weather Service is calling for Thursday to be mostly sunny and breezy in the Baltimore area, with a high near 63 and southwest winds of 16 to 22 miles per hour, gusting up to 33 miles per hour. A coastal flood warning is in effect through late Thursday afternoon for the western shore of the Maryland Chesapeake Bay and counties along the tidal Potomac River. A gale warning is in effect until 8 p.m. for the tidal Potomac River and the Maryland Chesapeake Bay. Thursday night is expected to be partly cloudy, with a low around 46 and southwest winds of 11 to 17 miles per hour.

The National Weather Service is calling for Friday to be partly sunny in the Baltimore area, with a high near 77 and west winds between 6 and 9 miles per hour. A coastal flood advisory is in effect until 2 a.m. Saturday for counties along the tidal Potomac River and the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay. Friday night is expected to be mostly cloudy, with a low around 54 and northwest winds between 7 and 10 miles per hour. There is a 30 percent chance of precipitation. Saturday is expected to be mostly cloudy, with a high near 61 and west winds between 8 and 14 miles per hour.

Maryland commuters have long known that there are only three ways to cross the Potomac between Point of Rocks and the nation's capital. What they don't know is that a century and a half ago, there were more than a dozen. And they're still there today. Forget bridges. Think ferries, and especially fords. Throughout history, waterways have exerted profound influences on military campaigns, including the Civil War. These nearly forgotten, but in many cases still scenic and even pristine, crossings along the Potomac River endure as reminders of how and where military commanders dealt with the riverine obstacles confronting their armies.

Ten years ago, if you were to ask people my age if they liked their beverages on the rocks, they would assume you were taking their cocktail order. They would never think you were offering them a water bottle to enjoy while coursing down the Potomac River rapids on an inner tube. My, how times have changed. And not necessarily for the better. Admittedly, it was my idea to go whitewater tubing to celebrate America's birthday. I felt certain that our forefathers would have approved, because tubing is the sort of adventurous activity that George Washington would have embraced had he not been concerned with jettisoning his powdered wig and shattering his remaining teeth.

With the ease of a player moving a chess piece, a massive crane growled to life early Friday afternoon, plucked a yellow buoy off the deck, swung it over the side and gently lowered into the Potomac River. Just like that, the network of bobbing markers that broadcast air and water quality readings on the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries to anglers, boaters, students and scientists grew by one. The eighth "smart buoy" is part of the Capt. John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail that commemorates the voyages of discovery carried out more than 400 years ago. The buoys are owned and maintained by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as part of a larger system of sensors that monitor bay quality.

WASHINGTON - For an unprecedented presidential inauguration, an extraordinary network of security precautions has been created. From road closures in downtown Washington to a ban on most traffic over the Potomac River, today's inauguration of Barack Obama will employ a mix of visible and clandestine protections apparently larger in scope than anything the nation's capital has seen. Obama and his family have received threats in the past. But security officials say they are driven primarily by the size of the crowds - perhaps as many as 2 million - expected to gather as the first African-American president takes the oath of office.

A brief anecdote illustrates the shift of political power in Maryland away from Baltimore and south toward Prince George's and Montgomery counties. Several years go, while a large equestrian center opened in his district outside Upper Marlboro, I suggested to state Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller (in jest) that it was illegal to pour that much concrete outside Baltimore. "Yeah, right," he said. Until around then, most of the big public works projects in Maryland - a convention center, a world trade tower, the subway, a concert hall and an aquarium - had been built in Baltimore.