Tuesday Evening, January 28, 2025
Wednesday is going to turn into A Wind-s Day! That may be an understatement, as a vigorous storm system rapidly intensifies to our north in New England. The pressure field that will develop will force the strong winds into our region and may also be felt with aches and pains if you are sensitive to variable weather.
The National Weather Service’s wind alerts have a range of expectations across the region. The highest winds will be in the mountains along the Eastern Continental Divide. Wind speeds will lower a little into the lower terrain of Piedmont and into the metro areas of Central Maryland.
Timing for the alerts is during the daylight hours, but the peak winds will occur midday into the afternoon. I would expect the highest winds between noon and 4 PM.
Softening ground that is starting to thaw may be susceptible to trees falling. Also, broken branches may combine to affect some power lines. So power outages are a possibility.
High Wind Warning: Gusts to 60 mph includes Hagerstown to Cumberland in Maryland, and Winchester in Virginia. Also, the mountains east of Garrett County in Maryland.
Wind Advisory: Gusts between 45 and 55 mph for all of Southern Pennsylvania and Central Maryland to the Chesapeake Bay. This also includes I-81 and Skyline Drive in Virginia.
The storm track continues across the Great Lakes. This next Low Pressure is following the track with snow and will crank during the day on Wednesday.
Low Pressure is forecast to be down to 988mb over New Hampshire. This may make for very impressive weather reports from The Mount Washington Observatory.
Lake Effect Snow will mostly stop in the typical areas where additional alerts are possible. Later in the day, some flurries or a snow shower may reach the hills north and west of Baltimore.
Wind flow will be FROM the Northwest. It will be steady at around 25 to 35 mph. The peak intensity gusts will reach as high as 60 mph in the tallest mountain areas of Western Maryland to the border of Virginia and West Virginia.
The strongest winds will be in the higher elevations west and north of Baltimore, but damaging wind gusts could reach near Annapolis and along the Northwestern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay.
Moderate to heavy snow will fall over Garrett County, where a few inches of accumulation can be expected. This will also include father north to Somerset County in Pennsylvania. Wisp and Seven Springs Ski Resorts will benefit from this.
Flurries may extend eastward but there is not much support to survive over the mountains into metro areas.
This is the ECMWF Solution showing the flow of the next storm through the region on Friday. The storm track is similar to when we had heavier snow earlier this month. What is missing is the cold air this time.
The steady and heavy rain will be in the afternoon through evening.
The European Model keeps the heaviest rain just south of Baltimore… similar to the recent storm tracks.
The American model brings the band of heaviest rain a little farther north through Baltimore and Central Maryland.
The range of temperatures is from near normal lower 40s to mid-50s.
The storm on Friday will bring heavy rain and lots of snow melt.
Click on the maps for that full report.
If you missed it, here is my detailed report from December 30 about why this IS A BIG DEAL!
Severe Weather: Storm Smart October and next spring Winter Weather FITF (Faith in the Flakes): November To March Click to see more and send a request for your school.
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I am aware there are some spelling and grammar typos and occasional other glitches. I take responsibility for my mistakes and even the computer glitches I may miss. I have made a few public statements over the years, but if you are new here, you may have missed it: I have dyslexia and found out during my second year at Cornell University. It didn’t stop me from getting my meteorology degree and being the first to get the AMS CBM in the Baltimore/Washington region. One of my professors told me that I had made it that far without knowing and to not let it be a crutch going forward. That was Mark Wysocki, and he was absolutely correct! I do miss my mistakes in my own proofreading. The autocorrect spell check on my computer sometimes does an injustice to make it worse. I also can make mistakes in forecasting. No one is perfect at predicting the future. All of the maps and information are accurate. The ‘wordy’ stuff can get sticky. There has been no editor who can check my work while writing and to have it ready to send out in a newsworthy timeline. Barbara Werner is a member of the web team that helps me maintain this site. She has taken it upon herself to edit typos when she is available. That could be AFTER you read this. I accept this and perhaps proves what you read is really from me… It’s part of my charm. #FIT
