Thunderstorm Wind — Prince George's, Maryland

2022-07-12 · near Branchville, Prince George's, Maryland

Event narrative

Hundreds of trees snapped and uprooted in College Park and Berwyn Heights with dozens falling onto homes and crushing vehicles, especially near the University of Maryland where large falling trees caused a two story house to split in half. Greenbelt Park remained closed for several weeks due to fallen trees.

Wider weather episode

An outbreak of significant severe weather occurred during the afternoon and evening hours of Tuesday, July 12th, 2022. An unseasonably strong cold front interacted with a high instability airmass to result in several bowing lines of thunderstorms, which maintained their organization and intensity due to strong atmospheric wind shear. Swaths of widespread damaging winds were observed, much of which was considerable. A couple of tornadoes were also confirmed, along with some significant hail. A wind gust of over 100 MPH was measured in one of the most powerful storms over eastern West Virginia.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (38.9961, -76.9348)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1034905. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.