A historic winter thunderstorm outbreak with likely tornadoes rocked the D.C. area
Friday morning. Here’s how and why.
Forecasters didn’t see this one coming until it was knocking on the door.
'During what is typically Washington’s snowiest time of year, a volley of damaging thunderstorms, which likely spawned tornadoes, barreled through the region early Friday morning. An unusually potent and warm February storm system fed abnormally moist, unstable air into the region, fueling the violent thunderstorm complex whose intensity flummoxed forecasters.
Weather radar and damage reports suggest tornadoes may have touched down in Washington’s northwestern suburbs near Leesburg, Va., and in parts of western Montgomery, eastern Frederick and western Carroll counties in Maryland. The National Weather Service forecast office serving the Washington region in Sterling, Va., is surveying the damage in these areas to determine if and where tornadoes occurred.
The Weather Service has logged more than 170 reports of damaging winds in the Mid-Atlantic between the Virginia Tidewater and New Jersey from this event, the most on record during the winter months of December, January and February.'
https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/02/07/tornado-outbreak-dc-leesburg-february/?fbclid=IwAR3-GjnZNNEDl2IUDIdhoOaF6IPzGGljqDjW2NVt7kKd_E7K02ZtMZAz28c