Arctic air, hauled out of Canada and pumped all the way to the Gulf Coast, is making this one brutally cold weekend in Central Maryland. One of my chores today will be to shut off the indoor valves to the outdoor spigots and then open the outdoor valves so the pipes can drain when we finally get above freezing again. (We've had one of those pipes freeze before; don't need to go through that again.)

And forecasters have put some flakes back in the forecast. They're calling for flurries Monday and Tuesday, and some have an eye out for a more significant snowfall for the weekend.

Here are some of the overnight lows, top sustained winds from across the region. Normal low for BWI on Jan. 3 is 24 degrees:

WeatherDeck in Cockeysville: 16 degrees; 16 mph

Baltimore Sun, Calvert & Centre: 18 degrees;  11 mph

BWI-Marshall:  16 degrees; 28 mph

Washington-Reagan:  17 degrees; 25 mph

Washington-Dulles:  15 degrees:  30 mph

Annapolis:  18 degrees; 22 mph

Baltimore, Inner Harbor:  19 degrees; NA

Frederick:  15 degrees; 22 mph

Hagerstown:  15 degrees: 29 mph

Salisbury:  18 degrees: 22 mph

Elkins, WV:  5 degrees; 16 mph 

High winds are contributing to power outages across the region. More than 8,000 BGE customers were without power at mid-day Sunday.

A powerful low-pressure system in the Gulf of Maine is producing blizzard conditions in northern New England. And the counter-clockwise flow around the low - coupled with clockwise flow around high pressure in the middle of the country - is responsible for the cold air being pumped south out of the arctic. Wind Advisories remain in effect through 6 p.m. Sunday for Central Maryland.

The cold air has surged all the way to the Gulf of Mexico and into South Florida. Check out the chilly forecasts for New Orleans and Miami.

The National Weather Service is forecasting snow showers here on Monday and Tuesday as cold winds off the Great Lakes drag some moisture our way. Unlike flurries, snow showers can produce some small accumulations.

Out in Western Maryland, lake effect snows are generating some fairly sustained snowfalls and several inches of accumulations today, with more due for much of the rest of the week. Winter Weather Advisories are posted for Garrett and parts of Allegany counties.

But the most interesting forecasts for our area are coming from the weather bloggers at AccuWeather and Foot's Forecast. They're watching the climate models and forecast models and they see a storm shaping up for Friday or Saturday that could produce real snow along the  I-95 corridor.

The basic scenario is familiar: plenty of very cold air in place east of the mountains, with a storm predicted to arrive from the west, and a low developing off the coast. Here's AccuWeather's Frank Strait on the prospects, from a Southeastern point of view. (He gets to it about 6:45 into the piece.)

But so far, the NWS is going only so far as to predict "a chance of snow showers" Thursday night and Friday.