2026 Mid-Atlantic Severe Storm General Discussion

[SnowenOutThere]

Geez, got back home and there’s a tree down across the road. Couple limbs down around the neighborhood. Everyone’s outside. 

[snowfan]

[snowfan]

[mkellerm]

The storm that just came through Annapolis was pretty intense.  BGE says 22,000 without power in Anne Arundel County.  We had lights flickering for about 10 minutes.

[SnowenOutThere]

An exciting couple of hours weather wise! 

Honestly, once the first round passed I assumed it was over until I heard some thunder in the distance. After looking at the radar I instantly rushed off to the Herndon metro parking garage as it has the best skyline I know of. Got there in time to watch the shelf cloud develop and then roll in. 

Before becoming part of the "# of people struck by lightning a year" statistic I made sure to get a picture of my trusty stead: The humble CRV. 

Afterwards, I decided to ride out the storm inside of the parking garage as driving home on FFX County parkway did not seem like a good time.

 

Eventually, I decided to take a video of the storm coming in. Could hear the metal signs clanging throughout the empty garage. Was pretty freaky. 

Finally, as the storm passed I saw a double rainbow appear. I attempted to get a lightning rainbow picture to complete my collection but had no such luck; though I personally hold the mental image with me. 

Lo and behold, just as I was packing up, another rainbow appeared which was even more vibrant than the first! 

Finally, I headed on homeward where I was met with a tree in the road. Additional limbs came down on fences, and even my neighbors windshield. 

Now, this (if I was smart) is where I should've realized that we will have an awesome sunset due to the past convection and humid air combined with the advantageous June sun angle and thus rushed to some open space to capture what might be the sunset of the year. Sadly, I only realized it was occurring as it passed (I'm sure there is a lesson in this) and realized a 10 minute drive would reward me only with deepening twilight. So, I sat back and watched what I could from my driveway. 

[BlizzardNole]

Geez Snowen those pics!! 

"on this episode of Storm Chasers..."

[snowfan]

That aa co storm was putting out a healthy amount of lightning.

[Kmlwx]

Anne Arundel Co FD has a crap ton of calls 

[wxdude64]

Sadly a life was lost to the storms going east of Roanoke earlier today-

Preliminary Local Storm Report
National Weather Service Blacksburg VA
927 PM EDT Fri Jun 12 2026

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0640 PM     Tstm Wnd Dmg     2 S Moneta              37.15N 79.63W
06/12/2026                   Bedford            VA   911 Call Center

            *** 1 FATAL, 23 INJ ***
            Corrects previous tstm wnd dmg report from 2
            S Moneta. Outflow from thunderstorm blew
            down one tent at a local church. One
            fatality and 23 injuries have been reported
            as of this report.

[wxdude64]

Only a 38 mph gust here at 5:20 pm in the thunderstorm, but when we left to go out to eat at 5:45 at the bottom of the hill a large maple had split and pulled power lines across the road, maybe 1/3 mile away from our house. They just were getting the road reopened when we came back at 9:30 pm. 

[Rhino16]

I went outside at work and it was windy. Dust was flying everywhere from the gravel parking lot it brought me back to Kansas. Unfortunately I had to get back to work, but it did rain briefly! Now there’s some rumbly showers rolling through in a minute or two. It gusted 29mph at the local airport.

[vortex95]

10 hours ago, wxmeddler said:

Some thoughts on yesterday, then today...

Yesterday:
Anytime you get a "swashed spider" hodograph, the storms are going to be weaker and messier than just looking at the thermodynamics would expect you to believe. Venting, inflow, water loading, updraft velocity are all going to be negatively impacted. That said, yesterday there was a decent shortwave and enough low level instability that allowed a few storms to develop over/west of the mountains and get the cold pool party started. Once the cold pool production began, the ambient DCAPE and torrid conditions was enough to sustain weak pulse like thunderstorms to the ocean. Limbs start to fail around these parts at around 30 mph, and you start seeing downed trees around 45-50 mph. That is just the nature of the flora in our region, they don't get hit often and so even weak storms do damage. 

Today:
Another weak wave as part of the packet that spawned the tornado outbreak in IL/IN yesterday will move into the western region this afternoon. Theta-E values in excess of 350K with minimal MLCIN should be enough to spark off scattered showers. While overall wind speeds in the lower troposphere are higher today, shear magnitudes remain weak, especially above 3km. Cold Pool propagation and aggregation of these showers should spawn further flank development of showers and thunderstorms. Due to the higher windspeeds aloft today compared to yesterday, storm and cold pool motions will likely be 10kts faster than yesterday. Therefore ground relative windspeeds should be slightly higher today. The question will be storm coverage, which we really won't know for sure until things fire after 3PM. CAM's are hinting that areas south of US50 are more likely than up near the M/D line.

 

The surging satellite appearance of the storms Thu reminded me of a tropical squall line.  Mesoscale factors, such as the cool pool, are the driving force due to lack of winds aloft/deep layer wind shear.

[mkellerm]

We are stuck in our neighborhood near Annapolis.  There is a tree across our street with a diameter of about 2 feet blocking the road.  

The county won’t be able to get to it for a while, since the main road into our subdivision is also blocked by trees.  A little further down, there is now what looks like an alley through the woods where all of the trees have been knocked down.  
 

In our back yard, a 120-foot tall tulip poplar blew down.  The rootball is about four feet taller than I am.