It's a running joke in the newsroom that when Roylance writes a weather trend story - about, say, the lack of rain or snow - the trend will come screeching to a halt. I'm a regular trend-killer. Don't like the weather? Get Roylance to write about it. Game over.

One look at the forecast shows it's happened again.

Last Friday, my editors sent word (I was off; worked the previous Sunday) that they wanted a "forward-looking" story for Tuesday on the deepening drought. On Monday, I checked the forecasts for the week, interviewed the experts, and on Tuesday we ran a front page story about the drought. Forecasters saw "no relief in sight" for the region, we reported. While there were showers in the offing for late Tuesday and Wednesday, Sterling was saying they wouldn't amount to more than a quarter inch at best. That's not drought relief.

Well, the long-range forecast - for dry weather continuing through the winter - hasn't changed. But the short-term forecast NOW shows a whole lot more than a quarter inch in the cards for Marylanders. It hasn't amounted to much at this writing, just a few hundredths of an inch here on the WeatherDeck in Cockeysville. But Sterling's current forecast for the rest of the week suggests we could get as much as three inches before this slow-moving cold front finally shoves off.

Thanks guys... The rain is being fueled by a low-pressure center to our south and west. It's pumping warm, moist Gulf air northward into the drought-stricken Southeast states, including us.

The best chances for rain - if THIS forecast holds up - come today and tonight, with a 70 percent likelihood we'll get precipitation. There's more due Friday and early Saturday, "Expect Baltimore/Washington urban areas to receive 1 to 3 inches of beneficial rainfall through Saturday," forecasters are saying this morning. Three inches would be enough, with what's already fallen this month, to give us normal October rainfall. Go figure.

In the western portion of the Sterling forecast region - down in western Virginia - they could see 4 to 6 inches of rain and urban flooding if warmer air triggers thunderstorms. The grain farmers are going to love this. It may not be the end of the drought. We are still short of water in the ground and in the reservoirs. But it is most certainly significant relief.

So, you're welcome. Now maybe I'll do a story about how little snow we can expect this winter.