Winter arrives in western Maryland, W. Va.

Accumulating snow possible mainly tonight into tomorrow

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Areas shaded in purple are under a Winter Weather Advisory through Saturday due to the potential for 2-6" of snow.

No sooner than a day after the release of our winter outlook does the first accumulating snow event arrive in the mid-Atlantic region.

A winter weather advisory is in effect for Garrett County in western Maryland, which includes Deep Creek Lake. A second winter weather advisory covers the highlands of West Virginia, including extreme western Allegany, Highland, Pendleton, and western Grant and Mineral counties.

In western Maryland, at least 4 inches of snow is forecast by Saturday afternoon, with 6"+ in the high elevations. In the West Virginia highlands 2-5" is expected.

Accumulating snow has not yet begun around Deep Creek Lake but you can watch the landscape whiten mainly tonight and tomorrow at DeepCreekCam.com.

Snow is not at all unusual in these areas during November. Oakland, Maryland -- in Garrett County - averages about 9 inches of snow during the month. Four inches fell there last November.

The cause of the snow is an area of upper level low pressure moving through the region that will probably just produce scattered cloud cover east of the mountains. The D.C. Lake Blog offers a great discussion as to why this region gets so much snow.