More record-breaking cold struck the Baltimore region after hours of steady precipitation left a layer of 6 to 11 inches of snow Thursday, disrupting work and school and creating treacherous road conditions.
Temperatures Friday morning were at 10 degrees at Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, a new record low for this day.
A Fallston man returning a neighbor's snowblower was killed when struck from behind Thursday night by a Jeep Cherokee. Maryland State Police identified the victim as 44-year-old Christian J. Widomsky and said the driver left the scene.
Precipitation and low temperatures arrived later Thursday than meteorologists expected, but intense bands of snow falling at rates of 1-2 inches per hour made up for the delay.
"It was one of those delayed-but-not-denied sort of storms," said John Gresiak, a senior meteorologist with AccuWeather.com.
Before something close to spring-like weather arrives next week, temperatures are again expected to plummet into the single digits Friday and possibly Saturday morning. Some school systems, including those in Baltimore City and Baltimore, Harford, Howard and Cecil counties, canceled classes for Friday given the forecast.
Those fed up with winter have little choice but to look for a silver lining.
"It's a chance for me to catch up on my housework," Westminster resident Chris Plassman said of yet another snow day as he shoveled his walk. "I don't like to say I'm sick of winter; I like to say I'm ready for spring. I'm a glass-half-full kind of guy."
Thursday's snowfall was one more disruption in what has been a long winter for businesses.
"It's killing us — we have to just make the best of it," said Ned Atwater, who closed the doors of Atwater's Bakery in Catonsville at 11 a.m. Thursday. "We're having trouble getting staff in, and we may have a hard time baking bread for tomorrow night."
Unlike other major snowfalls caused by storms with powerful centers of low pressure, Thursday's precipitation was the result of warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico meeting a potent cold front. As disturbances in the atmosphere pushed the moisture upward, it condensed in the colder upper levels of the atmosphere and fell as snow.
"We expected bands of heavy snow to develop, and they did," said Brian Lasorsa, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service's Baltimore/Washington forecast office.
The snow piled up quickly across Central Maryland. Snow totals included 9 inches in Columbia, 8 inches in Jacksonville, 7.4 inches in Baltimore's Pimlico neighborhood, 7 inches in Havre de Grace and 6 inches at Fort Meade.
In Carroll County, where the snow began slightly earlier than in other areas, snowfall came a couple of tenths of an inch shy of a foot near Manchester and topped 10 inches in Westminster. The community of Lineboro in the northeastern edge of Carroll, saw more than a foot of snow.
With school districts and government offices across the region closed, roadways and businesses were quiet.
Operations shut down early at some port of Baltimore terminals, where crews were busy clearing snow from piers. Only two ships called on the Dundalk Marine Terminal, and no ships berthed at the cruise terminal or the Seagirt container terminal.
"Obviously, the work continues, but it would be tough to say it's business as usual, because significant snowfall like this is not business as usual," said Maryland Port Administration spokesman Richard Scher.
The Mall at Columbia, White Marsh Mall, Towson Town Center and Mondawmin Mall all closed either at noon or 2 p.m., depending on the anchor stores' ability to bring in enough workers to cover shifts.
But downtown's large financial firms kept business going, thanks to telecommuting or use of out-of-state offices.
"Our offices are open today," said Brian Lewbart, spokesman for T. Rowe Price. "As always, the safety of our associates is paramount, and we also understand that personal circumstances such as child care were affected by today's storm."
At Legg Mason, spokeswoman Mary Athridge said, "We're open but have contingency plans so people can work from home and work from the office. We test our systems to make sure people can log on. People are working."
For restaurants, it has been a trying winter, with snow, ice and cold prompting many canceled reservations but also driving foot traffic to neighborhood spots.
"You never hope for snow," said Elon Kotz, co-owner of the Food Market, a restaurant in Hampden.
Kotz said the restaurant seldom has to close because many employees and customers live nearby, but the bad weather comes at "a slower part of the season anyway," he said.
Josh Hershkovitz made the decision to close Hersh's, his restaurant in Riverside, early Thursday.
"Not a lot of our staff lives close to our restaurant," Hershkovitz said. "That's our biggest consideration, the safety of our staff. We have a bartender who lives in Joppa and a server in Pasadena."
For others, the snow was an inconvenience but not impassable.
At Green Mount Cemetery, a man determined to see the grave site of Ouija board inventor Elijah Bond ignored the half-snowed-over sign out front that read: "Visiting during inclement weather not advised."
From the entrance lodge, the cemetery's superintendent, Shawn Ward, watched as the man's large black truck struggled to get up a steep hill. The hill had been plowed once in the morning, but another layer of snow soon built up.
"I don't encourage anyone to come here," Ward said. "We like to be able to clean up without anybody tracking it up."
Ward, who faced a 50-mile commute home later, said he was thinking about closing up, but he was waiting for a UPS delivery.
The visitor, meanwhile, was not deterred; he tried to make it to the grave on foot.
Sunshine could help clean up the snow Friday, but snow cover and clear skies are forecast to help drive temperatures into the single digits by early morning. Temperatures are expected to reach only the mid-20s in the afternoon and could slide back into the single digits or lower teens early Saturday.
A warm-up is in sight beyond that, with highs in the 40s and 50s next week.
Until then, many are eager for signs of spring — like the digital billboard that greets motorists on the southbound Jones Falls Expressway with images of daisies and buttercups. Clear Channel Outdoor, which operates the billboard, recently added a countdown to spring, and it's down to two weeks.
"We're in the depths of winter, but you hit a certain point on the calendar where you can start to think about Opening Day, crocuses and tulips," said Steve Ginsburg, general manager of the company division that includes Baltimore. "If you start thinking about it, it will hopefully put a little bit more hop in your step."
Baltimore Sun Media Group reporters Lorraine Mirabella, Richard Gorelick, Ian Duncan, Liz Bowie, Jacob deNobel and Lauren Loricchio contributed to this article.
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