PM Update: Severe weather winding down

I have tickets to see the Bowie Baysox tonight.....What are the chances that game will get hit with a storm? I have two small children who want to go but I don't want them to get scared with severe thunderstorms. Thanks for your thoughts!

Excuse me....."near 80 mph" wind gusts possible?!?
I assume these storms will "pop" this afternoon & evening, cuz I see nothing on radar right now.

@FIREDRAGON47

Yep, any storms that develop have the potential for gusts near 80 mph. But it's more a question of how many storms there will be, which leads to...

@jcmcgrath1969

Don't have a great answer for you at this point other than what's in our forecast above, which is the possibility for isolated to scattered strong t'storms with about a 40% chance at any given location. With nothing on the radar yet, I'd still plan to go but you'll want to keep an eye on things.

-Dan, CWG

90? Anybody? 90?

80mph is an eye-popping figure!

Have e-mailed friends to batten down the hatches if they hear thunder rumbling.

I like powerful, sustained winds every so often, because it can be fun (I remember when I was a kid in a TS, and I opened the house door in 60+ knot winds. The door flew open, and I had to lay all of my body weight into it just to close it again lol). We're talking about Hurricane strength wind possibilities here though (Albeit brief, and isolated in form), and I'd hate to see trees toppling over.

BTW, the AM radio just began popping, so the storms are definitely beginning to pop-up out West.

Centreville VA Distant thunder booms.

Getting hail in Chantilly now...

Centreviile VA Monster raindrops & a very little bit of BB sized hail....hardly any wind though & the sun is trying to break out.
Raining HARD!!!

The clouds baring down on the district look pretty menacing!

As quickly as it started, it finished just as quickly.

Last one in my office and I started hearing some pinging on my building's roof. Looked out the window and saw the begining of a hail storm. Before you knew it, marble sized pieces of hail came down, along with sheets of rain. Ten minutes later teh rain is gone.

Centreville VA Rain is over & the sun is out. That was a quick one & very tame (here at least) despite the fearsome radar colors.

Dime to nickel size hail in Franklin Farm (between Chantilly and Herndon). Hail lasted about 2 minutes. The sun is shining now.

marble and dime size hail in Old Town Manassas. About 10 minutes now, and torrents of rain.

Marble-sized hail on the Bethesda/DC border.

Small hail here in Upper NW.

A friend just e-mailed from McLean that they were getting golf ball sized hail.

Says she's never seen anything like it and she's lived here for 40 years.

Light rain and low, growly thunder in Merrifield VA; no torrents or hail. Yet...?

Peanut sized hail in Bailey's Crossroads. Fat raindrops and a lot of them.

looks like a split is forming around 66. big hail to the north, big hail to the south, but right on 66 (aka, Merrfield, orange line arlington, etc) might just see brief bursts of rain

Those a little north and south of the district look ok right now.

What is everone else seeing? Any reports from friends? Have them post them here.

@ 1842 - Small hail and heavy rain in Ballston.
@ 1844 - End of hail
@ 1846 - Rain tapered off to a mist, wind reduced significantly
@ 1847 - First audible thunder

Sky got very ominous here in Silver Spring, a second later the rain/small hail started... windy got gusty, heard one crack of thunder, and then the storm stopped. What a tease! Took about 2-3 minutes total. Please tell me we'll get another one tonight?!

Follow-up quote from my friend in McLean:

"That was the wildest thing ever. It stopped now but it came down in a torrent. The sounds of the hail hitting the house was terrifying - and I don't scare easy. I'm going to walk through the house to see if any windows got cracked -- it was that bad.

Golf ball sized hail, with some bigger, just passed through our part of Vienna. Every car outside the garage got dinged up...one of ours has a fractured windshield. Very little rain came with this storm.

Around 6:27, Mclean was hit. I'd say the hail here is a little smaller than ping pong balls. Maybe 30mm in diameter?

My mother just drove through Great Falls, VA, (On her way home from McLean, VA). She ran into golf-ball sized hail, and it was bad enough that she had to pull the 4Runner off to the side of the road. She initially thought that someone was throwing rocks at her SUV, it was that bad. Other vehicles also had to pull over on side streets, and after it passed, the sides of the road were covered in ice. Here in Reston, VA, we've been spared so far *Crosses fingers*.

Centreville VA More thunder & dark storm clouds coming in from the west. Yikes....round #2 approaches!

Shocker... At 7:22, NWS radar shows a tornado signature approaching La Plata, MD.

I see the tornado signature near La Plata, but the warning is for the smaller cell to the north...

Who cares!!! My boyfriend thinks the same with me. He is eight years older than me, lol. We met online at Agelessmatch.com, a nice place for Younger Women and Older Men, or Older Women and Younger Men, to interact with each other. Maybe you wanna check out or tell your friends.

Who cares!!! My boyfriend thinks the same with me. He is eight years older than me, lol. We met online at Agelessmatch .com, a nice place for Younger Women and Older Men, or Older Women and Younger Men, to interact with each other. Maybe you wanna check out or tell your friends.

Driving through Chevy Chase to Silver Spring was fun, about 45 minutes ago. Hail the shape and size of grapes and cumquats was falling all around, along with heavy rain. After the storm passed by, I could see a towering cloud not too far in front of me. The I had driven through was off to my left, and that one looked like it could have an anvil.

I really hope that La Plata is not going to get hit by a tornado...

My mother stated that on the radio, they were talking about a funnel cloud report in Herndon, VA earlier. Is there any confirmation of this?

The Charles cell really has a classic supercell look to it. "Flying eagle" radar signature, something of a hook an at least a bit of rotation. A lot better looking than the Anne Arundel cell that was briefly torn warned. It is east of La Plata now.

Some of the hail from the 6:27 storm in Mclean: http://imgur.com/HO5wa.png

Sorry for the terrible image quality!

Finally.. NWS puts up a tornado warning on that cell. Funnel clouds reported in Waldorf, Md.

Brucebogtrotter, the quality is good enough!

Centreville VA Pouring rain & much more electrical activity with this storm cell than previous. Crackling thunder.
Shutting down PC...good luck everyone!

Sporadic thunder that may not be too distant... in southern Silver Spring.

WTOP radio is reporting on the *possibility* of tennis ball sized hail near Prince Frederick associated with the tornado warning storm. Funnel clouds confirmed near Waldorf, and reported further east.

Hail in Tysons Corner 7:50 am husband says size is marble size.

7:50 pm that is!!!

The skies just opened up here in Woodley Park. The thunder and lightning are starting to pick up a bit, but nothing serious on that front yet.

Pea to marble-sized hail for 3-5 minutes in Columbia Heights West, Arlington, just east of Baileys Crossroads, 6:45 PM. Intermittent thunderstorm activity more recently. Not much rain since 7 PM.

So far, only some distant rumbles of thunder and a few sprinkles in the mountains east of Front Royal... 70F

If interested, I took a picture of a foggy view on Wednesday morning.

Hail and heavy rain/wind in Lake Ridge about 2 hrs ago.

We're not the only ones with weather, Nats game in Denver tonight postponed. The cold rain they played in last night didn't look like fun.

Nothing here in Dumfries. We put down some grass seed a couple of weeks ago and could sure use some rain. Saw a bit of lightening in the distance about 5 min ago, but nothing else. Kept getting text messages this evening saying severe weather was coming, but nothing. My sister in Bristow said she got marble sized hail and torrential rain for about 5-10 min about 6:30, but it stopped as fast as it started.

Took some photos of our storms from my balcony here in Ballston -

http://www.flickr.com/photos/josephdangelo/sets/72157623938275131/detail/

Nice hail in Bethesda... Here's some video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtxmJcvl20o

I had 1/2" to 3/4" hail with heavy rain in my part of Vienna (almost no lightning, and no wind), but I understand the hail was much larger close by.

Hi Capital Weather Gang!

While watching the news around 7:45 tonight, they were talking about a funnel cloud in the Charles/St.Mary's/Calvert county area. I thought I heard the guy say something about a "tornado alley" in the DC area.

I've lived in Montgomery County my whole life, and it seems like every summer, almost all of the tornado warnings we get in the DC area are either in Northern Virginia or Southern Maryland. Is that where the DC "tornado alley" is? What is the meteorological reasoning for that?

Tornadoes always stay south of DC, thus affecting NOVA and Southern Maryland. It's because even a tornado doesn't want to have to compete with the massive amount of hot air blowing out of DC on a regular basis.

As usual, weather forecasters showed themselves to be morons who don't know jack.

As usual, weather forecasters showed themselves to be morons who don't know jack.

Posted by: FridayKnight | May 15, 2010 7:23 AM

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If that's the case, why are you on this weather site? Go be miserable somewhere else.

BTW - Neither a drop of rain nor a gust of wind at the 301 Bridge last night :(