Thunderstorm Wind — Carroll, Maryland

2023-08-07 · near Cranberry Station, Carroll, Maryland

Event narrative

Thousands of trees, branches and wires blew down near and north of Westminster. 30 utility poles snapped along MD-97/MD-140 Baltimore Boulevard near Gorsuch Road, with live wires trapping several people in their vehicles for a few hours; two people were injured. Dozens of roads in the area were blocked by storm debris for several days. Several homes suffered minor roof, shingle and siding damage. Several barns were destroyed.

Wider weather episode

A strong cold front, driven by an unusually strong upper-level trough and wind shear, interacted with a hot, humid, and unstable airmass over the Mid-Atlantic. This pattern resulted in the formation of lines of thunderstorms and several supercells. The most widespread and significant wind damage was noted over northern Maryland, although pockets of considerable wind damage were noted over portions of northwestern Virginia and eastern West Virginia. Somewhat atypical for the Mid-Atlantic is late summer was the number of large hail reports, with multiple instances of giant hail noted.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (39.5680, -76.9792)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1108583. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.