If you were already thinking that spring has arrived, you’re not out of the woods yet.
The National Weather Service is predicting some snow overnight tomorrow for the Baltimore area. It’s not a real snowstorm, but rather a spate of snow showers mixed with rain. Today’s forecast pegs the chances for snow and rain tomorrow night and Friday at 60 percent.
Baltimore has seen practically no snow so far – or much precipitation of any kind, for that matter – this winter. Two days ago, the NWS tweeted to show just how abnormal this is. Baltimore has gotten roughly half of its normal precipitation from last October through early March:
As posted earlier, region is in drought. Here are some rainfall ttls vs normal for Oct1-Mar5. Only 1/4 – 1/2 inch forecast thru Tue night. pic.twitter.com/M5c0db7KdU
— NWS Baltimore-Washington (@NWS_BaltWash) March 7, 2017
According to Weather Channel meteorologist Ari Sarsalari, tomorrow’s coming showers are one of three “snow maker” systems making their way from the Midwest in the next week. The first one “isn’t a huge snowstorm,” he said, though another system traveling southeast toward southern states (Virginia, North and South Carolina) by Saturday night could be bigger, though it’s hard to say if it will reach up past Virginia.
A third system coming from Minnesota early next week “has the potential to be a big one for the northeast,” he said.
Baltimore has only had a couple other instances of snow and less than an inch of accumulations so far this winter. The one time we did get any significant precipitation, it came in the form of freezing rain and a resulting sheet of ice on the road in December that caused a deadly tanker crash on I-95 and pileups around the Beltway.
Given the strange weather history of the past few months, we’re again advising everyone to ignore the fact that it’s 60 degrees out today and be prepared to drive carefully and slowly if and when the snow hits tomorrow.
