Thunderstorms May Soak Montgomery County: Report

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD — Spring brings with it mild temperatures, but you can't forget the other side of the coin: storms. And as a cold front collides with warm and humid air in our area on Thursday, Montgomery County could get some potentially severe thunderstorms in the afternoon.

The Washington Post's Capital Weather Gang says there is a line of scattered storms that could hit us sometime between 2-8 p.m., and a few storms may have damaging winds and hail.

Because the storms are fragmented, it will be largely hit or miss, with some spots getting pounded hard and others missed entirely. Like most weather systems, they will start in the west and move east.

We haven't really had much in the way of thunderstorms so far this spring, and CWG says that's because April was pretty cool, and as a result there wasn't any moist, unstable air to cause the development of strong storms. But May has been a different story as it has been warmer than average, and that has brought with it the opportunity for storms.

Thursday in particular will be fairly warm, with temperatures reaching as high as the mid-80s.

But there's another factor that makes us more likely to get storms: vertical wind shear, which helps with storm development, CWG says.

Thunderstorms are created by the rapid upward movement of warm, moist air, usually along a front. The warm air cools and then condenses, forming a cumulonimbus cloud. The droplets fall and create a downdraft, which can result in strong winds.

The National Weather Service places us -- and the entire D.C. area -- in the "marginal" thunderstorm risk zone. That is the second-lowest rating, so there's no need to flee as soon as clouds roll in. But it does mean things could get interesting just in time for the evening commute.

(Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)