snoWatch: Dare to dream

After a delightful spring January, the snow gods decided to get with the program and give us a taste of winter to kick off the Olympics. Too bad the games, and festive snow, start on a weekend. Still, it's time for another snoWatch, filled with the contractions and gratuitous helping of adjectives you know you love.

NOAA says: The suits over at the National Weather Service all agree: It's high time we got some snow. That said, NOAA has announced a 100 percent chance of one to two inches Saturday and a whopping six to ten inches Saturday night. As if it couldn't get any better, Sunday's high is above freezing. Why is melted snow good, you may ask? Because a Sunday low of 19 degrees is sure to make for some dangerously icy roads come Monday morning.

Weather.com says: For reasons we can't explain, the Weather Channel enjoys fostering false hopes in the naïve hearts and minds of MCPS students. Adding to NOAA's already impressive predictions, Weather.com is predicting one to three inches Saturday and eight to twelve come Saturday night. These brash weathermen are also predicting a 17 degree low for Sunday night.

Broadcast media (we'll humor them) says: It's snowing in Arkansas, Philadelphia is expected to receive 13 inches of sleet and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg says New Yorkers are ready, and all this from the top story of the local forecast page. Is there anything NBC4 can't do?!

While we do find the above predictions to be rather scrumptious, it just happened to be raining, yes, raining at Blair just this morning. Fortunately, as of 2:30 p.m., there seems to be a fairly heavy snow coming down. The snow should begin to stick when the temperature drops and night approaches. If we do get a delicious six to ten inches (or eight to twelve if you want to jinx it) and our Sunday evening temperatures get down into the teens, we might be looking at a long overdue snow day.

With that said, here's our breakdown:

snoWatch predictions:
Chance of closure (Sunday): 100 percent
Chance of two-hour delay (Monday): 75 percent
Chance of closure (Monday): 25 percent

snoWatch question: According to ABC News, "Old Man Winter isn't ready to go into hibernation just yet." If Old Man Winter and Punxsutawney Phil were to throw down in the first Celebrity Deathmatch of 2006, who would emerge victorious?

Additional reporting by Pria Anand, who rooted against the Spice Girls in Celebrity Deathmatch: Deathbowl '98.