Storms cause thousands of outages in Maryland

About 14,000 BGE customers in Baltimore, Anne Arundel, Harford and Calvert counties temporarily lost power yesterday afternoon as a cold front from the west brought thunderstorms and tornado watches to the area.

Firefighters in Prince George's County reported seeing a possible tornado touch down in the Clinton-Brandywine area, but National Weather Service officials could not confirm that it was a twister.

The worst of the storm hit south and east of Baltimore, downing power lines and trees in Fairfax County, Va., and dumping large hail in the Lothian area of Anne Arundel County and parts of Calvert County, according to the National Weather Service.

Thousands of Pepco customers in Prince George's County also endured power outages yesterday.

The weather caused some departure delays yesterday afternoon at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, but officials did not expect any major disruptions throughout the evening and night.

The storms were caused by fast-moving cold air colliding with warm, waterlogged air sitting above the Mid-Atlantic, said Calvin Meadows, a meteorological technician with the National Weather Service in Sterling, Va.

"The storm should be well out of our area by morning," he said.