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BLOG: Cold Temps & Snow Ahead For Sunday

It was another beautiful winter day with sunshine and a high of 57 degrees. Now the clouds have come in as a new storm moves our way. If you've been tracking this storm all week, you may have heard many different people talking about different amounts. We have never been very pumped for it here at WJZ, but right now it's looking even less impressive.

This storm has a lot of different factors working against it. First, it has been so warm, is only going down to 32 degrees Saturday night, and will top out in the low 40s before the storm even starts Sunday. So anything that does start falling will initially just melt on the roads anyway. Second, the real push of the storm will pass south of us. We always expected this, but there are signs that it will either take an even farther southern track or the precipitation shield will be more compressed to our south. Third, the history of this season is just not there. I know that doesn't mean that we can't get a good storm still, but the trend has been working against us and we just cannot ignore that. If we were dealing with this same storm just two years ago, we would expect a lot more out of it.

So this is what we expect...

TIMING:
The storm will arrive during the day Sunday. There may be rain/snow showers to start, but any chance of snow accumulation won't really be possible until after 3 or 4 p.m. - continuing through the overnight. This storm will be gone by Monday and we go right back up into the 40s.

AMOUNTS:
Since this is a southern passing storm, there will be higher accumulation amounts farther south. The northern fringe of Maryland down into Baltimore may get a trace-1". From Anne Arundel County back into D.C. and over to the Eastern Shore, there may be 1-2" possible. And southern Maryland & the southern Eastern Shore could get another inch or so on top of that. This is more of a mountain storm, with the most expected out in Garrett and western Allegany Counties-- great news for those taking ski trips this holiday weekend.

Since the gradient of this storm is so east to west, any southern shifting of the track could leave northern Maryland and Baltimore with nothing. That seems more likely than a northern shift. However, if there were to be a northern shift, you could add an inch or two to the overall totals.

After this storm passes, temperatures climb back into the 50s for most of the week. There is the chance for some rain showers late Tuesday into Wednesday and then some mixed rain/snow showers Thursday.

Check back in with Tim Williams Sunday morning on WJZ for the very latest with this storm.

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