A heavy storm delivered high winds and a deluge of rain Thursday in Montgomery County, leaving more than 1,000 residences without power and a tree down in the middle of Colesville Road in downtown Silver Spring.
The storm swept through the region with wind gusts reaching speeds of over 50 mph that uprooted trees and damaged roofs.
Around 1:20 p.m., the National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for the region as the storm picked up intensity, although no tornado sightings were reported in Montgomery County. Some local schools in the county had students shelter-in-place during the tornado warning, which was in effect for less than 45 minutes.
I'm in Bethesda & storm is blowing parts of roof off the apt building. Just FYI guys!! Take shelter. #Tornado #dmv #dc #tornadowarning pic.twitter.com/SU63JFIg3J
— Kelly Ann (@itskac) April 6, 2017
hail in Silver Spring #storm @dougkammerer @capitalweather @TenaciousTopper pic.twitter.com/1YerjMf1LU
— Michael Crispino (@MJCrispino) April 6, 2017
Pepco reported a power outage Thursday afternoon affecting more than 1,000 customers near Fernwood Road in Bethesda, just south of the I-270 split. The utility estimated power would be restored by around 6 p.m. Other smaller outages that impacted less than 200 customers were reported in Potomac and Bethesda, according to the utility’s online outage map.
Outages in Bethesda area via Pepco outage map.
In downtown Silver Spring, a tree fell onto an unoccupied parked car on Colesville Road near the transit center. No one was injured in the incident, according to fire department spokesman Pete Piringer.
Colesville Road in Silver Spring. Storm causes tree to fall on a woman's car, she wasn't inside at the time. @WTOP pic.twitter.com/CAhLvvAopi
— Mike Murillo (@MikeMurilloWTOP) April 6, 2017
The storm cleared the area around mid-afternoon and by 3:30 p.m. the sun was shining again.
