It does take another breed to live in Western Maryland. It's cherry blossom time in the Chesapeake region, but forecasters are still dropping the S-word into their weekend forecast for the far western slopes of the Alleghenies. Is this a great state, or what?

But first, the immediate forecast for us lowlanders.

A look out the window this morning makes it clear that skies are darkening as clouds thicken up and rain approaches. There's a strong cold front draped along the Appalachians, from the Great Lakes to the Gulf, all trailing down from a deep low in Canada. As that front moves our way, the low is drawing warmer, moist air north off the Gulf and the Atlantic, and that spells a deepening cloud cover for us, and rain.

We are already getting some showers at Calvert & Centre this morning, although they have not shown up yet on our rain gauge. Forecasters say they could drop between a tenth- and a quarter-inch today, and a bit more this evening. The front should pass by late this afternoon, stalling well to our south. Look for fog in the morning.

Then the front reverses direction and returns as a warm front late Thursday, bringing another tenth- to a quarter-inch of rain before yet another cold front reaches us Thursday night into Friday morning, perhaps with some thunder.

Then skies begin to clear later on Friday as the front moves by us. But moisture in the air moving up the western slopes of the mountains could fall as a rain/snow mix before ending Saturday morning.

The weekend, at least, still looks great, with mostly sunny skies and highs in the 60s. Showers return late Sunday into Monday.