Wintry Weather Set To Put A Damper On First Days Of Spring

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Snow is headed to Maryland, and it could cause a sloppy mess over the next few days.

A Winter Weather Advisory is in effect from 6 a.m. until 6 p.m. Tuesday for northern Howard County, northern Baltimore County, Carroll County, Harford County and some other areas.

A Winter Storm Watch has been issued for portions of The District of Columbia, central and northern Maryland and northern and northwest Virginia from late Tuesday night through Wednesday evening.

The first day of spring is Tuesday, but Mother Nature is operating on her own time table. Plow trucks have been preparing roads all Monday night as a low-pressure system moves into the area.

"A ton of sun Monday beating down on roads and paved surfaces," WJZ's Marty Bass said. "It's warm on ground level and above us."

Bass says there is rain moving in our direction as of 4:30 a.m. Tuesday morning and the day will include a mix of rain and wet snow.

"There may be a period of rain in the morning, and during the day, we'll probably see a mixture of some sleet and some wet snow mixing in, which eventually will probably just end up in plain old snow," WJZ's Bob Turk said.

RELATED: Snow To Start Spring

Salt and brine already line the roads, and the biggest challenge may be on its way.

"It's when the sun goes down and those temperatures drop off in both the air temperatures and the pavement temperatures is when you'll see the accumulation, which means we got to really be on top of that," said Charlie Gischlar with the Maryland State Highway Administration Department of Transportation.

Bass says northern areas may get up to 15 inches of snowfall but it will be spread out over the span of two days.

This is the fourth time the East Coast has seen a system like this in a matter of weeks.

To some, Monday's high of 60 degrees was an unfair tease.

"I'm so tired of this kind of back and forth, I just want to have spring. I want to have magnolias blooming," Baltimore County resident Suki Parks said.

Anthony Russell, highways operations manager for the Baltimore County Department of Public Works, says this will be the 14th storm of the year. He adds nearly 500 workers are ready to clear 8,000 roads, and that's in Baltimore County alone.

"Stay off the roads, give us a chance to please do what we do, so our guys are safe and you're also safe till we get the roads clear," Russell said.

On Wednesday, another system is expected to move in and most of the region will be under a Winter Storm Watch until 8 p.m.

"Wednesday is the wild card because temperatures at that point are going to be much colder," WJZ's Meg McNamara says.

She says the Baltimore area could see several inches of precipitation.

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