Major storms for DC region on Sunday, pretty good chase for me too.
Monday, July 26th, 2010 at 10:32pm EDT
Good chase, decent images, lots of power outages for the DC area. Recovery still underway.
While no tornadoes were reported with this severe weather event, there was lots of damage and power outages throughout the region. Wind reports in excess of 70mph were reported and during Mark and I’s chase, we curtainsly can confirm that with our experience over near Leesburg, Virginia.
The day started out with meeting up with Mark Ellinwood (http://www.ellinwoodweather.com) and departing north on Interstate 270 and by the time we got to Frederick, Maryland the first tornado warning for storm cells within our reach went up. We quickly knew we had to blast west, but keeping an eye on the storm direction as it was looking to drop a little south of I-70 as it ventured from the Pennsylvania & West Virginia line. The next move was down I-81 and we continually tracked the cell, meeting it south of Charlestown, West Virginia. Stayed ahead of the cell as it continued showing a decent couplet (although not strong enough for a tornado warning at this point) until we ran out of real estate (aka Potomac River interference) and decided to let the cell take us just west of Leesburg, Virginia.
The storm looked great, had a lowering, which was kinda wall cloud(ish) but wasn’t exacly classic supercell nor classic linier shelf cloud structure looking either. But the winds were extreme, and at our stopping point along Rt. 7 we turned back to observe a column of dust being blown into the sky by 70 plus mile per hour (mph) winds. At first, in the few seconds we have to assess things we wondered if it might even be a gustnado. But it wasn’t, the winds clearly were straight lines.
We watched the storm, and Mark got some lightning shots after the passage of the line. Then it was time to head it back home, crossing at White’s Ferry to do so. As we crossed the river we start to see the extensive amount of tree limbs and whole trees that were toppled by the strong winds.
Upon getting home, power was out, and not only around my neighborhood, but over 300,000 total homes and businesses were without power. Even as of this writing, there are still thousands (180,000+ in Montgomery County alone) without power in the region. Outside area power companies are bringing in a whole army of assistance with the huge power outage fix.