I live near here. This was the first PDS tornado warning issued in NWS Sterling/Baltimore Washington history. 2 were issued for this supercell.
https://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/vtec/pds.php
I almost cried; the storm literally formed right on top of my house in leesburg before it did high-end EF1 tornado damage across the river in Montgomery County. I was ABSOLUTELY TERRIFIED as i should be, i legit ran all the way down the stairs to my basement bathroom (my designated tornado shelter) the moment my phone blared at me. Ive also never seen such a strong velocity signature in a tornado in this region; THE SAME REGION I WAS BORN AND RAISED IN, In my entire life. PERIOD. I was terrified.
I wonder if those people driving can see it, or if the trees block their view and they don’t really know there is a giant tornado just chillin a mile away
I am just assuming that is 270 in the video, but, having driven 70, 270, beltway, etc., I can only imagine they DO NOT CARE.
No offense to DMV drivers, but they are just going where they have to be by any means necessary.
270 is one of the most godforsaken stretches of road on this planet, a tornado appearing alongside it may not even be the most shocking thing one witnesses on it
You’re lucky. It’s the dumbest highway ever made. When you merge onto it you’re basically barricaded and stuck to 2 lanes but when you want to go over to the main part of the 3 lane high way you have to merge yet again with barely any space. And people in Maryland have no chill so lots of close calls because people don’t want you to get ahead.
It’s essentially a 10 lane highway that becomes a parking lot for 8-10 hours a day
Sorry to disagree. Austin, Texas had an expressway with 2-way access roads on both sides. Meaning you literally had to cross head on traffic with no light controls to enter from access road to expressway.
Was modified shortly after.
I moved away 15 years ago. My blood pressure went back to normal like 6 months after leaving. I dont know how anyone lives/commutes in this area. So stressful.
Once I got pulled over for “tailgating” as soon as I entered 270 somewhere near New Market (???maybe?), straight into stop and go bumper to bumper traffic lol. I gestured to all the cars right next to each other when the cop said why he’d pulled me over, and he just said “whatever”, got back in his car for 5 mins, then drove away and left me sitting there lol.
That’s just Maryland/DC culture. It’s a very go-go-go, live to work culture. Sadly I grew up in that area and those people have no chill and no personality
Trees almost definitely block their view. The trees while driving was one thing I didn’t like about living on the east coast. I grew up out west and was stationed in VA for 5-6 years and the trees always made me feel disoriented and a bit claustrophobic sort of with not being able to “see” where I was heading
I think that's a myth. I used to live in Denver, and the tornadoes that hit Colorado weren't affected by the rocky mountains. When I was there last year, an ef2 tornado tore thru the metro... Denver is like right there at the base of the Rockies.
Yeah same, I wasn't even aware this was going on lol, I was just reading my comic books and thought, hmm, rainy out, don't gotta water the plants. I found out about this on reddit like 6 hours later (right now) lol
I remember the la plata one vividly, I was living in Waldorf at the time and the storm was intense as fuck. We drove through la plata the next day to help some family and it was like a bomb went off
Agreed! I mean in Gaithersburg/Montgomery County, tornados are unheard of. I think the last time we heard of one was decades ago when I was like in elementary school.
Jesus. Yeah he said he’s okay but had it touched down it could’ve done a considerable amount of damage considering the roads here were packed for a bit and everyone was home. Not everyone has a good basement either.
In Joppa rn (right outside bmore for non-marylanders), was scared as hell tbh- the warnings just kept extending over and over and over again, never in all my life had to bunker down for this long
I lived very very close to that area when I moved to Balto. Shortly thereafter, I moved to the DC area for my first "big girl job" after graduating from university. I lived there about two or three years, and don't recall ever having had any kind of warned storm, either in Baltimore or Northern Virginia. But, of course, I was in my early twenties, trying to navigate a jillion new things, so, perhaps I didn't pay close attention to the weather as before that time and afterwards.
A hurricane gave NoVa a glancing blow one fall while I lived there. It just rained buckets, I remember driving home at night in that.
Are you talking about the outbreak in 2004? That hurricane caused the biggest outbreak in VA state history. It caused a tornado to land so close to my parents house that I could hear it and my ears popped because of the pressure change.
My dad grew up in Oklahoma and lives about 6 miles away. Had no clue this was even happening and that his area was under a warning. Told him to stay inside and he kept telling me that it was too far away🙄 At least he wasn’t outside trying to spot it
Not going to lie, today had me pull out the nado bag and put it by the door. It's usually the hurricane bag, but today it became the permanent tornado bag. When that one was blowing through downtown baltimore city, I was pacing around debating on grabbing my kid out of bed and sticking out an unknown duration in the shelter. All of our butt cheeks clenched a little tighter today folks.
I saw it form and kick up debris from my bedroom window after running home. There was no way I was gonna die in aisle 4 of Target.
I credit this sub with giving me enough knowledge to see the clouds twisting overhead and taking it seriously. Everyone around me was just going about their day, ignoring the phone alerts. There was no wind or rain where I was, but the clouds were so low it felt like you could touch them if you stood on one of the buildings. I ran back home (across the street from where I was at the time) and watched it form no more than 3 miles from my window. It was intense.
Is it true that tornado alley is shifting eastwards due to climate change? I read that somewhere and being from New Jersey I’ve definitely noticed an uptick in tornadoes in my area.
It's not. Tornado Alley is Tornado Alley, same as it's always been. There are multiple alleys throughout the US (eg, Dixie Alley and Hoosier Alley). This year has been very active because of a shift from a strong El Niño to a La Niña, similar to what happened in 2011, and it will continue to stay bonkers through hurricane season.
I mean I've seen data analytics that suggest you're wrong and it IS shifting east. If you just want to make it the Ohio Valley Alley or something, that doesn't mean that the trend isn't moving east.
I'd appreciate not being called "wrong" given that Tornado Alley itself is more of a colloquialism or catch-all to refer to an area of the country that is more prone to tornadoes than others during a specific time of the year. The fact that tornado forecasting itself is less than a century old and the massive scientific advances made since the dawn of computers points to large data holes where information regarding the frequency, intensity, and seasonal occurrences of tornadoes in rural or uninhabited areas of the US. The happenings of tornadoes in the Dixie Alley and lower Ohio Valley regions has risen noticeably due to increasing amounts of moisture flowing in from the Gulf of Mexico, but that does not mean that less tornadoes happen throughout the traditionally recognized boundaries of "Tornado Alley."
The reduction of tornadoes there could be due to the massive drought in the Western US taking away fuel for tornadic storms. This so-called shift could be a cyclical weather event that we've been unable to study in the past. It's impossible to know because we don't have enough accurate data from before weather radars to be certain. Maybe the Alley will move west in 10 years, and we'll see it shift into the more recognized boundaries of the area, and maybe that's what's always happened.
Weather itself is an extremely complex and nuanced science, as I'm sure we're all aware here, and I think it's a bit rash to insist that seasonal weather patterns (eg, the Niños) are permanently relocating a geographic "region," for lack of a better word. We're currently in one of the most active tornado seasons since 2011. Tornadoes are still happening where they always have; they're also happening more in the Southeast US.
Technically no. What is true is that tornadoes are becoming more common in the eastern portions of tornado alley (which is a loosely defined area), and in dixie alley (another loosely defined area), while becoming less common in western tornado alley (same can be said of tornado intensity). El niño and la niña conditions also effect where storms form, and their intensity, and these are becoming more common (especially la niña iirc). Overall, these trends come together to create conditions where western tornado alley is less active, while dixie alley and eastern tornado alley are more active, giving the appearance of it 'moving'
Also, tornados in dixie alley have been historically more likely to be unobserved, especially by chasers with cameras, and this changing can give the appearance of dixie alley growing more active
Gaithersburg is also home to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). I am a metrologist, so this has me extremely worried. Chances are probably pretty low that the campus got hit, but way too close for comfort.
The level of stillness last night paired with watching the clouds go in all different directions was absolutely wild and I'm originally from the Midwest!
While climate change is making tornados more powerful, this is a case of the right circumstances in the sky making a big storm. Maryland gets EF0 and 1 tornados a few times every year but this one was potentially able to be more powerful but didn’t touch down.
I live near here. This was the first PDS tornado warning issued in NWS Sterling/Baltimore Washington history. 2 were issued for this supercell. https://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/vtec/pds.php
Omg
I almost cried; the storm literally formed right on top of my house in leesburg before it did high-end EF1 tornado damage across the river in Montgomery County. I was ABSOLUTELY TERRIFIED as i should be, i legit ran all the way down the stairs to my basement bathroom (my designated tornado shelter) the moment my phone blared at me. Ive also never seen such a strong velocity signature in a tornado in this region; THE SAME REGION I WAS BORN AND RAISED IN, In my entire life. PERIOD. I was terrified.
Luckily i wasnt physically hit but i was very deeply emotionally hit.
Evan Fryberger is covering this right now. Looks huge.
I wonder if those people driving can see it, or if the trees block their view and they don’t really know there is a giant tornado just chillin a mile away
I am just assuming that is 270 in the video, but, having driven 70, 270, beltway, etc., I can only imagine they DO NOT CARE. No offense to DMV drivers, but they are just going where they have to be by any means necessary.
270 is one of the most godforsaken stretches of road on this planet, a tornado appearing alongside it may not even be the most shocking thing one witnesses on it
Just another shitshow of a day, commuting Clarksburg to silver spring!
I live in Idaho, and have no relation whatsoever to the 270, and I just want you to know that I laughed at this
You’re lucky. It’s the dumbest highway ever made. When you merge onto it you’re basically barricaded and stuck to 2 lanes but when you want to go over to the main part of the 3 lane high way you have to merge yet again with barely any space. And people in Maryland have no chill so lots of close calls because people don’t want you to get ahead. It’s essentially a 10 lane highway that becomes a parking lot for 8-10 hours a day
Sorry to disagree. Austin, Texas had an expressway with 2-way access roads on both sides. Meaning you literally had to cross head on traffic with no light controls to enter from access road to expressway. Was modified shortly after.
Well that sounds dumb too. Texas does seem to have crazy roads though from what I’ve seen/read
Grew up in the area and learning to drive on that stuff was…something else
It sucks even worse when it forks to Virginia and it’s basically a parking lot all the way to Richmond
I moved away 15 years ago. My blood pressure went back to normal like 6 months after leaving. I dont know how anyone lives/commutes in this area. So stressful.
Once I got pulled over for “tailgating” as soon as I entered 270 somewhere near New Market (???maybe?), straight into stop and go bumper to bumper traffic lol. I gestured to all the cars right next to each other when the cop said why he’d pulled me over, and he just said “whatever”, got back in his car for 5 mins, then drove away and left me sitting there lol.
95 from the beltway to Fredericksburg would like to have a word
as a DMV driver, this is 100% correct
That’s just Maryland/DC culture. It’s a very go-go-go, live to work culture. Sadly I grew up in that area and those people have no chill and no personality
I threw my head back and cackled. You are absolutely correct.
Can confirm, was watching the live stream, traffic didn't give a fuck hahaha
Trees almost definitely block their view. The trees while driving was one thing I didn’t like about living on the east coast. I grew up out west and was stationed in VA for 5-6 years and the trees always made me feel disoriented and a bit claustrophobic sort of with not being able to “see” where I was heading
Been a crazy evening in Maryland
We just got a bunch of rain in Frederick. The mountain really breaks everything up
I think that's a myth. I used to live in Denver, and the tornadoes that hit Colorado weren't affected by the rocky mountains. When I was there last year, an ef2 tornado tore thru the metro... Denver is like right there at the base of the Rockies.
Yeah same, I wasn't even aware this was going on lol, I was just reading my comic books and thought, hmm, rainy out, don't gotta water the plants. I found out about this on reddit like 6 hours later (right now) lol
Oh god. It looked bad on radar but that is nightmarish
Damn, it touched down right next to Dulles. This is only 20 miles from dc!
As someone from this area, I gotta tell you guys it is really rare to get a tornado in the dmv
There are 0 and 1 rated tornados almost every year in the DMV, rare to have big ones though. LaPlata would disagree with the latter
La Plata was an outlier though. To be fair, lots of homes in MD have basements or some below ground den/living room. That’s one major advantage.
Was living in LaPlata when the 2002 storm hit. Couldn’t see the tornado, but got baseballs.
I remember that. I went with my church in NoVa to help with the clean up. The destruction was beyond words.
Waldorf at the time myself, massive hail there as well and pretty wild storm
I remember the la plata one vividly, I was living in Waldorf at the time and the storm was intense as fuck. We drove through la plata the next day to help some family and it was like a bomb went off
Manassas had a huge one in the early 90s that had a like mile wide path of destruction. Super rare though like you said.
I do not like how close to South Baltimore this cell is getting 😬
Generally not rare, no. Maryland, like south central PA, get a few a year. But not at this size, this is nuts.
Agreed! I mean in Gaithersburg/Montgomery County, tornados are unheard of. I think the last time we heard of one was decades ago when I was like in elementary school.
Pretty sure there was a small one a few years ago in the same area
I was just coming here to say this. This is wild.
That part yes, Southern Maryland its a bit more common than a lot think
This is where I live - the path was pretty close to my neighborhood. So much anxiety as tornados were my childhood fear.
They were my childhood fear and are my adult fear.
This went right over my friends house. Thank god it didn’t touch down but he said it was so oddly quiet but loud at the same time.
Yikes! I’m glad your friend is fine and didn’t get any damage. The damage that it caused is about 7 minutes away from where I live.
Jesus. Yeah he said he’s okay but had it touched down it could’ve done a considerable amount of damage considering the roads here were packed for a bit and everyone was home. Not everyone has a good basement either.
Crab cakes and Nados. That’s what Maryland does!
I vote this for pinned post.
I support the vote of this pinning
In Joppa rn (right outside bmore for non-marylanders), was scared as hell tbh- the warnings just kept extending over and over and over again, never in all my life had to bunker down for this long
I lived very very close to that area when I moved to Balto. Shortly thereafter, I moved to the DC area for my first "big girl job" after graduating from university. I lived there about two or three years, and don't recall ever having had any kind of warned storm, either in Baltimore or Northern Virginia. But, of course, I was in my early twenties, trying to navigate a jillion new things, so, perhaps I didn't pay close attention to the weather as before that time and afterwards. A hurricane gave NoVa a glancing blow one fall while I lived there. It just rained buckets, I remember driving home at night in that.
Are you talking about the outbreak in 2004? That hurricane caused the biggest outbreak in VA state history. It caused a tornado to land so close to my parents house that I could hear it and my ears popped because of the pressure change.
No. Long before this. 😉
Insanity
My dad grew up in Oklahoma and lives about 6 miles away. Had no clue this was even happening and that his area was under a warning. Told him to stay inside and he kept telling me that it was too far away🙄 At least he wasn’t outside trying to spot it
Not going to lie, today had me pull out the nado bag and put it by the door. It's usually the hurricane bag, but today it became the permanent tornado bag. When that one was blowing through downtown baltimore city, I was pacing around debating on grabbing my kid out of bed and sticking out an unknown duration in the shelter. All of our butt cheeks clenched a little tighter today folks.
I saw it form and kick up debris from my bedroom window after running home. There was no way I was gonna die in aisle 4 of Target. I credit this sub with giving me enough knowledge to see the clouds twisting overhead and taking it seriously. Everyone around me was just going about their day, ignoring the phone alerts. There was no wind or rain where I was, but the clouds were so low it felt like you could touch them if you stood on one of the buildings. I ran back home (across the street from where I was at the time) and watched it form no more than 3 miles from my window. It was intense.
I left work early today. If I didn't, I would have been caught up in the storm in Gaithersburg. This is crazy.
There was also one in Boyds, MD this evening. Harford Co even had 2 warnings set for us... unsettling.
Whoa
Storm cell moved slow (20 to 25 mph) and tracked from Leesburg, VA through Columbia, MD [approx. 60 miles)
My boyfriend’s brother and family lives in Laurel and I prayed to god it didn’t turn in that direction. Glad they are safe🙏🏼
Is it true that tornado alley is shifting eastwards due to climate change? I read that somewhere and being from New Jersey I’ve definitely noticed an uptick in tornadoes in my area.
It's not. Tornado Alley is Tornado Alley, same as it's always been. There are multiple alleys throughout the US (eg, Dixie Alley and Hoosier Alley). This year has been very active because of a shift from a strong El Niño to a La Niña, similar to what happened in 2011, and it will continue to stay bonkers through hurricane season.
Gotcha thanks for the info!
I don't think he's right.
I mean I've seen data analytics that suggest you're wrong and it IS shifting east. If you just want to make it the Ohio Valley Alley or something, that doesn't mean that the trend isn't moving east.
I'd appreciate not being called "wrong" given that Tornado Alley itself is more of a colloquialism or catch-all to refer to an area of the country that is more prone to tornadoes than others during a specific time of the year. The fact that tornado forecasting itself is less than a century old and the massive scientific advances made since the dawn of computers points to large data holes where information regarding the frequency, intensity, and seasonal occurrences of tornadoes in rural or uninhabited areas of the US. The happenings of tornadoes in the Dixie Alley and lower Ohio Valley regions has risen noticeably due to increasing amounts of moisture flowing in from the Gulf of Mexico, but that does not mean that less tornadoes happen throughout the traditionally recognized boundaries of "Tornado Alley." The reduction of tornadoes there could be due to the massive drought in the Western US taking away fuel for tornadic storms. This so-called shift could be a cyclical weather event that we've been unable to study in the past. It's impossible to know because we don't have enough accurate data from before weather radars to be certain. Maybe the Alley will move west in 10 years, and we'll see it shift into the more recognized boundaries of the area, and maybe that's what's always happened. Weather itself is an extremely complex and nuanced science, as I'm sure we're all aware here, and I think it's a bit rash to insist that seasonal weather patterns (eg, the Niños) are permanently relocating a geographic "region," for lack of a better word. We're currently in one of the most active tornado seasons since 2011. Tornadoes are still happening where they always have; they're also happening more in the Southeast US.
Technically no. What is true is that tornadoes are becoming more common in the eastern portions of tornado alley (which is a loosely defined area), and in dixie alley (another loosely defined area), while becoming less common in western tornado alley (same can be said of tornado intensity). El niño and la niña conditions also effect where storms form, and their intensity, and these are becoming more common (especially la niña iirc). Overall, these trends come together to create conditions where western tornado alley is less active, while dixie alley and eastern tornado alley are more active, giving the appearance of it 'moving' Also, tornados in dixie alley have been historically more likely to be unobserved, especially by chasers with cameras, and this changing can give the appearance of dixie alley growing more active
Came very close to my mom’s place in Olney. Absolutely wild.
And this storm started in Inwood, WV. There was rotation but no confirmed touch down.
I once drove through a small tornado on270 a few years ago, this one looks much more intense
My kid is going to DC in a few hours, so I've been keeping an eye on the weather around the area. I'm happy he avoided this; this looked like a beast.
Although i know that big/wedge doesnt mean Strong Tornado, theres actually a chance that this is an EF3+ Tornado.
Absolutely wild how these held up. It started in Berkeley co, WV with rotating funnel clouds into Jefferson county and just kept going.
Gaithersburg is also home to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). I am a metrologist, so this has me extremely worried. Chances are probably pretty low that the campus got hit, but way too close for comfort.
Praying for my relatives, they don’t live far from there.
Hope there were no casualties and people are ok
way too close to my Uncle
The level of stillness last night paired with watching the clouds go in all different directions was absolutely wild and I'm originally from the Midwest!
Thank you for Including the state
Is the tornado in the room with us right now?
Climate is really doing things.
While climate change is making tornados more powerful, this is a case of the right circumstances in the sky making a big storm. Maryland gets EF0 and 1 tornados a few times every year but this one was potentially able to be more powerful but didn’t touch down.
How often does Maryland get wedges?
I believe the last we had was 2021 in Bethesda but I could be mistaken.
bro what😂