TOWSON, Md. — Whether seeing snow in the forecast elicits feelings of dread or joy, depends a lot on what you do for a living.
For Vincent Ayd..Owner of AYD Hardware in Towson, it means he can finally sell some shovels.
“I have inventory that I'd like to sell this year. Because storing inventory is not a good thing. Today - the first customer was ice melt. Second was a snow shovel. So hopefully we're gonna get to where we need to be in reducing this inventory level."
For Ahmed Turay - the commute from Baltimore to Rockville wasn't looking pretty this morning, so he decided to give himself a snow day.
The State Highway Administration would probably agree it was a wise choice. Officials are asking people to stay off the roads if they can.
“Just hang out at home, play my Nintendo Switch, and just enjoy my day - my first snow day in what feels like 500 years. I’m normally not a snow person but it’s been a while since we’ve seen snow, so I’m pretty excited,” Turay said.
Crews pre-treated the roads Sunday afternoon with salt brine in preparation for this morning's flurries, but the main event is tonight into tomorrow.
“It's probably not gonna rise to that kind of storm where it's all hands on deck. But we will be working in 12-hour shifts and we'll continue all the way through tomorrow until any icy patches are removed,” said spokesperson Charlie Gischlar.
Gischlar encourages drivers to check this website before heading out. There’s a map that shows you where plows are, so you can plan your route on the roads that were treated most recently.
“Don't crowd the plow. We want people to stay behind our equipment, particularly when we when we have them all linked up into a snowplow train where we're doing one pass with a bunch of different trucks. Every year we get somebody tries to pass that and then we have to go and pull them out because they wipe out down the road. So stay behind our equipment, they're literally clearing a path for you,” Gischlar added.
The threat of icy roads led the city to cancel its MLK Day parade this afternoon. Representatives from the national unity platform - a political movement in Uganda - were disappointed.
The city does plan to reschedule.
“I hope they will soon. Even if next year - we will come. We will sleep in the snow. We will come,” said Robert Kabuie.