Season's First Snow Expected In Md., Storm Warnings And Weather Advisories Issued
BALTIMORE (WJZ) - The first snow of the season is upon us.
The National Weather Service says parts of southern Maryland will be under a Winter Storm Warning tonight through Saturday afternoon/evening, and the rest of the state will be under a Winter Weather Advisory.
The storm warning affects Dorchester, Wicomico, Somerset, Calvert, Charles and St. Mary's counties and starts at 7 p.m. Friday. The Weather Advisory starts at midnight.
The same system has already coated many states in the south that don't normally get snow, like Texas, Louisiana and Alabama.
Crews in Maryland were out Friday preparing for the winter weather by pre-treating roads, and several school systems cancelled Saturday activities.
WJZ's Bob Turk says some in central Maryland could see up to six inches of precipitation, while others will see less than an inch.
The Baltimore and central Maryland area is expected to get between 1 and 3 inches, he says.
WJZ's Rick Ritter reports that, while this is the first snowfall of the season for the Baltimore region, the State Highway Administration has already been dealing with snow for weeks in parts of western Maryland.
Tonight, they have more than 700 plows and dump trucks filled with salt out on Maryland's roads, ready to deal with whatever mother nature brings. The command center is manned, too.
"By midnight tonight we're going to have essentially a state-wide crew in place," says SHA administrator Greg Slater.
In Baltimore City, 30 to 40 pieces of equipment will be out on the streets by midnight, with tons and tons of salt on hand.
"We prepare back in July," says Baltimore Department of Transportation spokeswoman Adrienne Barnes. "So we're prepared. We're ready. This is what we do."
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