CUMBERLAND — Snow began falling before dawn Thursday in Allegany County as the front end of a two-day Arctic blast that was expected to batter the region Friday night with single-digit temperatures and winds gusting up to 50 mph.
“As far as precipitation, most of it will be coming today and tonight,” AccuWeather meteorologist Tom Kines said. “There will be about three inches of snow before it changes over to rain early Thursday afternoon.”
Snow was expected to change over to rain later in the day Thursday before temperatures nose-dive Friday night into the single-digit range along with strong wind gusts. Kines said an inch of rain could be expected Thursday.
“Whatever surfaces are wet are going to flash freeze,” said Kines at AccuWeather headquarters in State College, Pennsylvania, on the drastic weather changeover expected Friday evening.
Snow emergency plans were implemented Thursday at 5:30 a.m. in Allegany County and an hour and a half later to the west in Garrett County, according to Maryland State Police.
Snow continued to fall late Thursday morning but apparently without major problems.
“We are in real good shape right now,” Roger Bennett, deputy director of the Allegany County Department of Emergency Services, said.
First-responders were routinely handling emergency medical calls but travel conditions were deteriorating throughout the morning.
In Washington County, a tractor-trailer traveled out of control and overturned on Interstate 68 in Washington County at about 7:30 a.m. Orleans first-responders were dispatched to the scene in the area of the 70-mile marker, Bennett said.
Late Thursday morning, there were police radio reports of trucks getting hung up on snow-covered I-68 and other county locations, including Haystack Mountain near LaVale.
Mineral County first-responders were called to a rollover vehicle accident on state Route 28, south of Fort Ashby, where an occupant was reported still in the vehicle at 10:40 a.m.
Outside Frostburg, snow emergency route Alternate Route 40 was snow-covered at 7:45 a.m., despite efforts by a State Highway Administration plowing at regular intervals.
A high wind watch from the National Weather Service remains in effect for the region until 6 a.m. Saturday noting “severe to significant threat to life or property.”
Kines warned of the effects the life-threatening conditions and the possibility of freezing of vehicle doors and locks.
“If venturing outside, you are going to have to protect your body from frostbite. With single-digit temperatures and high winds, it doesn’t take long for frostbite to set it,” he said.
The threat of power outages loomed Friday when high winds were expected to take down tree limbs and utility poles and lines. Last week’s storm caused loss of electrical service to more than 8,000 residents in nearby Hampshire County, West Virginia, and at various other locations in the Potomac Highlands and parts of the Western Maryland region.
The winter storm warning posted early Thursday by the weather service warned of wind chill readings as low as minus 35 degrees. The warning remains in effect until 6 p.m. Friday.
As for the holiday weekend, Kines said the “weather will be just fine and no accumulation of snow.”
“It will be cold Saturday and Sunday and not as windy over Christmas Day,” he said.