Drying out instead of digging out
All things considered, it's easier drying out the morning newspaper than digging it out from under 8 inches of snow. I figure that's about what we would have seen this weekend had the temperatures been 10 degrees colder than they were yesterday.
As it is, I still haven't been able to read my home-delivered copy of the Sunday Sun. Plastic bag notwithstanding, it entered the house soaking wet - the Baltimore Sponge - and spent the day on the kitchen floor drying out.
We had more than 1.2 inches of rain out on the WeatherDeck in Cockeysville this weekend. Our instruments here at Calvert & Centre streets recorded 0.83 inches of rain for the storm's duration. BWI received almost an inch. Here are some more readings from around the region.
Ocean Pines: 1.95 inches
Berlin: 1.88 inches
Taneytown: 1.44 inches
Cockeysville: 1.33 inches
At BWI, we've clocked in 2.26 inches so far for the month of December, headed for what could become a normal month of precipitation - which would be only the second since April.
The weekend storm did produce some wintry weather to our west. Here's a rundown of some snow and ice accumulations.
There were some pretty impressive wind gusts, too, on Sunday. There's a rundown in the previous link; just scroll down to the wind section. Here are some highlights:
BWI: 61 mph 6:23 p.m.
Annapolis: 48 mph 5:28 p.m.
Martin Airport: 40 mph 6:39 p.m.
Westminster: 52 mph 5:31 p.m.
I was catching a nap around that time. (I had to be at BWI at 6 a.m. for a story on the USO Lounge. But I was aware enough to realize the wind was howling outside, and tugging at the roof of the house. The rafters were creaking like crazy, just itching to fly off into the next county. The lights flickered and I lost my internet connection.
I estimated later the gust was running about 45 mph. The anemometer on the WeatherDeck registered 15 mph, but it's protected by the house, and tends to run at about a third of the actual wind speed. I could only imagine what hurricane-force winds (74 mph and up) might do.
