Look out your window.

If there is snow, the weather forecasters were right. If not, well.

A large storm was expected to move northeast from Alabama last night and dump as much as 6 inches of snow in the Baltimore area beginning in the early morning. A foot of snow was predicted to hit Western Maryland, and about 2 inches were expected in southern parts of the state.

State and city highway crews are on standby, ready to plow and salt the streets when -- and if -- the snow hits.

"We'll bring in some folks early, and then we will bring in more people" if the weather worsens, said Valerie Burnette Edgar, a spokeswoman for the State Highway Administration. "Sometimes nothing happens."

Weather reports predicted the snow could start between 4 a.m. and 10 a.m. It is expected to continue through the night and taper offtomorrow morning.

Meteorologists said it would be heavy, wet snow, which some said could turn to rain.

Organizers of the annual St. Patrick's Day parade in Baltimore said yesterday that snowflakes would not stop shamrocks from going down Charles Street.

"The only way we would cancel it is if there is 6 inches of snow on the ground in the morning," said Sally Murphy, a parade coordinator, who was frustrated last night by unccertain national weather reports. Meteorologists "don't really know [what is going to happen]."

"It's a whole year of work that goes into [the parade]," she said.

Annapolis' annual Green Derby Day, scheduled for today, has been postponed until April 18 because of the possibility of bad weather, event officials have announced.

The street festival, held in honor of St. Patrick's Day in the Eastport section, features land canoe races, team relays for adults and events for children.

"It's a big storm," said Laura Hannon, a meteorologist with Accu-Weather, a private forecasting service.

As the storm moves east, the National Weather Service predicted, between 4 and 6 inches of snow could fall in the Baltimore area during the day, with additional accumulation at night.

Weather service meteorologists put the start of the snow between 4 a.m. and 7 a.m.

Over the Chesapeake Bay, there could be a mixture of rain and snow, said meteorologist Howard Silverman.

Accu-Weather said that Baltimore could expect a solid 6 inches from the storm today and tonight. It predicted that the snow would begin between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m.

But last night Baltimoreans did not rush to grocery stores -- as is local custom -- for vital supplies of milk and toilet paper. Three supermarkets in different areas of the city said that business was more or less normal.

"Normally in Line 2 all you hear people talk about is the snow coming. Right now it's just the usual business," said Tim Zittle, manager of Metro supermarket on East Joppa Road.

Zittle noted that the seafood department was busy. Perhaps people were planning to hunker down in their homes with good food, he said.

"If I was off tonight I would get shrimp, and the liquor store would be busy," Zittle said.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

Pub Date: 3/14/99