Parts of Maryland are seeing the first snow of the season as a cold snap brings a sharp temperature drop statewide that’s set to last through Tuesday night.

About 1 to 2 inches of snow covered Bittinger, a community in western Garrett County near Savage River State Forest. The county, which is under a winter weather advisory through Monday evening, could receive 2 to 4 inches of snow, said Erik Taylor, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Baltimore-Washington office.

The mountains near West Virginia could see higher amounts of snowfall, Taylor said, and wind chill could make the temperature feel in the single digits.

In and around Baltimore, temperatures will hover around the upper 40s and lower 50s Monday and Tuesday and drop to the upper 20s in the evenings. Some snow flurries are expected in the early morning hours of Tuesday, but the forecast for the week is mostly sunny and dry. Wind chills will also make the temperature feel lower.

Low temperatures are expected to extend into Southern Maryland, with Calvert and St. Mary’s counties under freeze watches from 11 p.m. Monday to 9 a.m. Tuesday.

These are the first freeze watches issued during autumn in Maryland since October 2020, indicating areas likely to hit freezing before the growing season ends — a marker of unseasonably cold weather.

Luis Rosa, a meteorologist with the NWS’ Baltimore office, said Tuesday will be the windiest day of the week. In the mountains, gusts are expected to reach nearly 40 mph, and swaths of the Chesapeake Bay stretching from Havre de Grace to south of Point Lookout will be under a gale watch from early Monday morning through Tuesday afternoon, he said. Baltimore Harbor is included in the gale watch.

Even as authorities prepare for frigid air and snowfall, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has projected that Maryland, like much of the country, will see a warmer winter than usual, thanks to the La Niña weather pattern.