BLOG: Wild Weather
Wow, what a cold front! This strong storm is producing everything from severe weather to flooding rain to damaging winds to incredible temperature swings...and even to snow on the back of it. Where do we even start?
The heavy rain and thunderstorms arrived early this morning. A tornado watch was issued at 3:45 a.m. Although there have been some brief let ups in the rain, it has generally been heavy since the start of the morning show - and I am writing this at 10:45 a.m. We did have a tornado warning for Prince George's County briefly, but it was quickly canceled. However, there have been numerous severe thunderstorm warnings issued. Some counties have even had multiple rounds of severe thunderstorm warnings. Damaging winds from those severe thunderstorms downed trees and power lines in many counties, but we have gotten the most reports from Carroll and Frederick Counties. The threat for severe thunderstorms seems to be passing with the cold front itself, but there are plenty of other weather concerns behind the front.
A flash flood watch continues until 1 p.m. and a flood warning continues for Washington and Allegany Counties until that same time. The heavy rain has caused flooding in Cumberland already, and is a concern for the rest of the state with heavy rain continuing even behind the cold front's passage. The rain will wind down this afternoon. In western Maryland, the rain has already changed over to snow for the mountains. Now that brings us to temperatures.
Temperatures rose right through the night ahead of the front. It was in the 60s this morning for most of the state. But behind the front, there is sharply colder air rushing in. There is a 15-20 degree temperature swing ahead of and behind the front. So when the front passes, temperatures are dropping from the 60s to the 40s. In Oakland, we are already down in the 20s. That colder air is going to win out and stick around for a few weeks actually.
This front is a real game changer - switching up the entire weather pattern. We are going down into the 20s tonight, then only recovering to the low 40s tomorrow. In fact, we will only manage highs in the low 40s right through the weekend. There is a much weaker Clipper storm that will swing through the Mid-Atlantic Saturday into Sunday. It could be far enough south to only give us clouds, but it will reinforce the cold air. Highs on Monday and Tuesday will probably not get out of the 30s. Some of the long term forecasts and forecasters have us in the cold air for the next few weeks. Could that mean that our first snow is coming soon??? (Take that with or without excitement...depending on your winter weather preferences.)
