Snow amount depends on storm's track

February 28, 2005|by BRIAN SHAPPELL

HAGERSTOWN - Weather forecasters are predicting a winter storm that today could bring the area's largest snowfall of the season.

Forecasters for the National Weather Service and AccuWeather are predicting anywhere from 4 to 10 inches of snow for Hagerstown and the surrounding areas.

AccuWeather is predicting 4 to 8 inches of snow, according to its Web site. The National Weather Service, which lists the chance of snow as 100 percent, is predicting 6 to 10 inches.

Calvin Meadows, a meteorological technician with the National Weather Service in Sterling, Va., said the area could see its largest accumulation this winter if the storm, which developed off the Gulf of Mexico, continues moving north from the South Carolina coast.

"In this part of the world, the exact track the storm takes will determine how much you're going to get," Meadows said.

Meadows said there is a 50 percent chance of snow Tuesday morning and afternoon with chances of snow Tuesday evening and Wednesday as well.

He said the area might be the victim of a "double-barreled weather system" because a cold front is moving toward the area from the northern Plains.

"It's going to follow hard on the heels of that coastal system," he said.

The largest snowfall for the Hagerstown area this winter came last week, when 6.2 inches fell Thursday and into Friday, according to weather observer Greg Keefer's Web site at i4weather.net. The area has received 13.6 inches of snow for the 2004-05 season, according to the site.

Employees at Martin's Food Markets on Dual Highway and Pennsylvania Avenue in Hagerstown said there was a bit of a spike in business Sunday, mainly on items like eggs and milk.

A manager at Lowe's in Hagerstown said snow-related items like shovels and salt did not move off the shelves more quickly Sunday. The manager, who declined to provide his name, said the lack of increased business likely was because people stocked up before last week's storm.

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