The First 'Real' Snow Falls In Maryland
BALTIMORE (WJZ) — Less than a year after digging out from back-to-back blizzards, the snow is back. The first flakes started falling in our region just before noon Thursday. But with the ground so cold, it took no time before it started sticking to the roads and making it slick out there.
The slick conditions made for an absolute mess on the roadways in southern Maryland. And in Baltimore, there's still plenty to clean up. But the snow was light and fluffy, which made it pretty easy to clear off your car.
Kelly McPherson has been out in the mess all night.
The first snow of the winter caused some fender benders, fired up the salt trucks, and even closed schools early.
Private contractors are back to winter work.
"It's hard to plow, there's not enough snow to plow, but it's still dangerous enough where you have to get some salt down and keep the stores open," said Jason Ashburn, contractor.
Roads are still slick from the small accumulation that stuck, then melted throughout the day.
Some 1,500 salt trucks have been out all day across Maryland state highways. They'll continue into the night.
"Salt is effective only to about 20 degrees, so we're combining salt with salt brine and that makes the salt more effective to negative 6 Fahrenheit," said Laura Racowski, State Highway Administration.
"It took me an hour and a half to get home where normally it would take me about a half hour, 45 minutes," said Sean Johnson of Towson.
"I'm paranoid because I fell two years ago and broke my arm in three places on the ice, so I don't take any chances with ice anymore," said Carla Perott, driver.
For those who didn't expect to see this much---they want more time to recover from the previous winter.
"I was coming from basketball practice and there all of the snow was," said Jim Meil. "So it was kind of wild. But I'm not ready for it, though."
Some say the snow came too early.
"Yeah, too soon," Meil said. "Maybe let's wait until Christmas Eve."
WJZ viewers are capturing Maryland's first real snowfall. Click here to view the slideshow. Send your pictures to wjzwebalert@wjz.com.
