Dan Rodricks
5:00 a.m. EST, February 13, 2014
If you think it’s been a long winter here in the Patapsco Drainage Basin, imagine Western Maryland: The first snow landed out there in October; they’ve had 90 inches so far, with about 2 feet of it held in place by a freeze that has made Deep Creek Lake safe for ice fishing.
Of course, winters are almost always like that in Garrett County; it’s the snowiest part of Maryland. But I enjoy going over Garrett weather facts now and then for their shock value and for the perspective they provide for my winter-weary and weather-worried neighbors in Baltimore.
Mentioning the western notch of our oddly-shaped state is sort of like bringing up that eccentric cousin who lives in the woods; you respect his independence and his resilience, but you sometimes forget that you’re actually related to the guy.
Indeed, we are. Western Maryland is out there — about three hours from Baltimore, beyond the Eastern Continental Divide, nestled between Pennsylvania and West Virginia, with mountain elevations between 2,000 and 3,000 feet and average annual snowfall of 138 inches.
