Every year for winter, us Marylanders hope for a White Christmas, but the chances of that happening are always very slim. We see signs of snow or a couple snowflakes and immediately think a blizzard is on its way, but does that ever happen? Not really. However, our luck might just change this year. I am here to tell you all the snow predictions for our area from many different sources.  

The Old Farmer’s Almanac says that we will have “precipitation and snowfall above normal (2 to 3 inches above monthly averages). The snowiest periods will occur at the end of December, late January, & mid-February.” Many other sources are also supporting a snowier than average winter. 

However, Tom Tasselmyer – the chief meteorologist from WBAL-TV 11 – is saying it is most likely going to be “another mild winter.” Are we surprised? However, he also says that he thinks “we’re going to be hit pretty hard by a couple big storms and a couple smaller ones as well,” which is very contradictory to his previous statement. I guess that explains Maryland for you – the weather can never be truly finalized.  

Lots of sources are also claiming a return of El Niño, which “causes the Pacific jet stream to move south and spread further east,” leading to a “colder and snowier winter than average.” It says that some of the snowiest winters happened during the years of El Niño, one being in 2009-2010 where Baltimore got 77 inches of snow. 

Some previous records of snow include the years 2021-2022, when we got an average of 19.4 inches of snow; 2020-2021 when we got 25.3 inches; and 2019-2020 when we got 31.2 inches. So, the amount of snow seems to be declining over the years, but we could also have a jump back up to somewhere above 30 inches. 

These predictions can mean everything but also nothing at the same time. Maryland is one of the most unpredictable states for weather, so this information could be accurate or completely inaccurate.  Hopefully, I was able to give you some idea of what to expect for this winter.