Snow-weary Marylanders will not be able to put away their shovels and gloves just yet. There's more wintry weather on the horizon. The National Weather Service is watching a pair of "clipper"-type storms that are expected to pass through Central Maryland in the next two days. And a more worrisome storm is due early next week.
Neither clipper will pack much moisture, so neither should drop more than an inch or so, forecasters said. And many of us may see little or nothing. Here's the forecast map for the first one.
The first is due after 9 a.m. Friday, with less than a half-inch of new accumulation likely. Snow chances were set at 40 percent. Most likely to be affected are communities on the western slopes of the Appalachians, and along the Mason-Dixon Line, forecasters said.
Snow showers are possible Friday evening, followed by the next little clipper system, Saturday morning. The same areas – the mountains and the state's northern border — are most likely to see the flakes.
Of more concern to meteorologists is a more potent system the computers predict will menace the region by mid-week. AccuWeather.com is already calling it the Groundhog Day Storm. For the moment, Sterling is setting the snow chances for that one at 30 percent, starting Monday night and continuing into Wednesday.
The models agree it will be a "significant" winter storm. But, five days out, they disagree on its path. A track to our south would bring us more snow. A track up the Ohio Valley would place us on the "warm" side of the circulation, leaving us with a decidedly cold menu of snow, sleet, freezing rain and plain rain.