BALTIMORE, Maryland January 21, 2016 - A State of Emergency will go into effect across Maryland at 7 am Friday morning in an Order signed today by Maryland Governor Larry Hogan.
"This is predicted to be the worst storm our state has seen since Snowmageddon in 2010...Our first and main priority is keeping Marylanders safe and making sure they understand that all levels of government are working together to respond to this weather system," Hogan said at a Thursday press conference at the Maryland Emergency Management Office in Owings Mills. At the very same time the State of Emergency goes into effect the National Weather Service has announced that its Blizzard Watch will convert to a Blizzard Warning. Under a warning the NWS is telling residents that the storm will hit imminently.
The Maryland Governor announced at the press conference that Maryland's state highway trucks will begin to pre-treat major highways with salt today. He said that Maryland has some 2,700 pieces of equipment and 365,000 tons of salt ready to work interstates and state routes. He also said that Maryland State troopers will be reassigned to road patrol and other agencies will be ready for shelter and other responses as they are needed.
"Once the storm begins tomorrow, if you don't have to drive, don't drive," Hogan said. If you don't have to leave your home, don't."
Just before 2 pm in Baltimore it was 32 degrees. A minor snow storm swept across Maryland Wednesday night and early Thursday morning, dumping between 1 and 2 inches of extremely dry snow on already frozen ground. The National Weather Service said that the high on Thursday would be around 35 degrees. Thursday night is expected to be partly cloudy with a low of 24 degrees. Friday's forecast calls for the day to start with cloudy skies, followed by developing snow in the afternoon. The Friday high will be within one degree of freezing. Heavy snow and blowing snow will follow toward Friday evening with the Friday night low expected to be near 27 degrees. Northeast winds will be between 10 and 15 miles per hour early in the evening, but increasing to 21 to 27 miles per hour overnight.
The snow will continue throughout the day on Saturday. High temperatures on Saturday are not expected to reach freezing; officially, the NWS is saying the high will be 31 degrees. The NWS does say that there is a chance that some areas near the Chesapeake Bay may see some sleet mixing with the snow on Saturday afternoon.
The NWS says that Saturday night will see continued snow and "blowing snow" with windy conditions and drifting snow. Low temperatures on Saturday night will be about 25 degrees. The snow will be heavy enough to cause "whiteout" conditions, the NWS warned.
The official chance of snow on Saturday and Saturday night is 100%. The snow will give way to clear skys on Sunday with a high temperature expected to be 36 degrees. Sunday night will be clear with diminishing winds and a low of 17 degrees. A slow warm-up will start Monday.
As usual, forecasters are quite coy about snow totals, but forcasters have said that accumulations of up to 30" are possible except in areas where sleet briefly mixes with the snow. Even those areas will receive significant accumulations of snow, the NWS said.
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