After coming short of initial predictions for substantial snowfall Monday and Tuesday, meteorologists are looking ahead to a couple of chances for wintry precipitation over the next several days as an active weather pattern continues.
Another "clipper" system is forecast to sweep through Thursday afternoon and evening. Such storms typically bring a dusting of snow from the west, and because this one is possibly arriving during the warmest part of the day, it could bring a mix of rain and snow or ice.
But forecasters expect it will largely pass to our north, bringing more snow to the Northeast but only light rain or flurries to Central Maryland.
On a conference call with reporters Tuesday, Louis Uccellini, director of the National Weather Service, said forecasters were watching that system even as snow continued to fall on Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine during Tuesday's storm.
He said they are also watching the potential for a system that come Sunday, after what is expected to be a stretch of frigid cold for the eastern part of the country. But there is a chance Central Maryland will end up on the warm side of the system, weather service meteorologists wrote in a forecast discussion:
"THIS SYSTEM MAY CUT TO OUR WEST UP THE APPALACHIANS ... AND IF IT DOES THERE WILL BE WARMER AIR THAT GETS DRAWN INTO THE SYSTEM. THIS WOULD CAUSE RAIN OR A WINTRY MIX ... DEPENDING ON HOW MUCH LOW-LEVEL COLD AIR REMAINS IN PLACE. THESE DETAILS REMAIN HIGHLY UNCERTAIN AT THIS TIME SO PLEASE STAY TUNED TO THE LATEST FORECASTS FOR UPDATES."
The weather service is for now predicting about 40-60 percent chances of a wintry mix Sunday into Monday.
Even without wintry precipitation, a chill is forecast to settle in over the region for the rest of the week and into the weekend. Temperatures dropped to 19 degrees early Wednesday morning at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall airport, and could again dip into the teens Saturday and Sunday mornings. Highs are forecast in the 30s through the week and only in the 20s Saturday.
A "Code Blue" alert is in effect Wednesday in Baltimore, a declaration made by city health officials to encourage care for homeless and vulnerable populations and expand space in city homeless shelters.