The weekend snowstorm -- most likely the last of the year, according to weather forecasters -- gave way to sunshine yesterday with rising temperatures expected to hit 70 later this week.

Yesterday's low temperature, recorded at 9 a.m., was one degree above freezing. By late afternoon, the day's high of 45 degrees had been reached.

"I even rode my bike into work today," said Leo Le Page, 36, a bicycle mechanic who made the trip from his Lauraville home to the Mount Washington Bike Shop. "It was a lot better than [Sunday] night" when several inches of snow fell in the Baltimore area.

Le Page said the bike shop was waiting for its seasonal business to pick up. That could be any day this week, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Phil Poole.

"It's going to be great," said Poole from weather service offices in Sterling, Va. "The stormy pattern will be subsiding not only for the rest of this week, but more than likely into next week. We may hit 70 degrees by Thursday."

While Sunday's storm moved up the coast toward Canada yesterday, warm weather was moving toward Maryland from the west. Today's high is expected to be in the low- to mid-50s with clear skies tonight and lows in the 30s.

Said Poole: "For this time of year, I don't think you're going to find anyone complaining."

Enough snow and slush were on the roads during yesterday's morning rush hour to close schools in Baltimore City and Allegany, Baltimore, Carroll, Frederick, Garrett, Harford, Howard, Montgomery and Washington counties.

About 200 travelers, including two bus loads of St. Louis high school band students, hit the road yesterday morning after spending the night at Hancock Middle Senior High School in Washington County.

"They were in the hallway, in the gymnasium, the auditorium, the cafeteria, anywhere they could find a spot," said Louis Close, town manager.

The travelers, delayed by a shutdown of westbound Interstate 70 because of an accident Sunday, slept on American Red Cross cots after dining on doughnuts, pies, cookies and soda supplied by a local restaurant and food bank, Close said.

Wet, heavy snow and ice bent and broke tree branches, causing power outages around the state. About 21,400 Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. customers, more than half in Baltimore County, were without power at 8: 30 a.m., down from 30,000 earlier in the morning. By 7 p.m., those figures were down to 3,300, according to a BGE spokesman.

Spring arrives March 21.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

Pub Date: 3/16/99