Thunderstorms

Two violent thunderstorms bearing heavy rains and high winds hit the central portion of Carroll County Thursday night and Friday morning, cutting power to 5,400 Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. customers.Between 300 and 400 Potomac Edison Co. customers lost power when a storm cell moved from Frederick into Carroll County, said Jerry Kremer, a company spokesman."The area from Keymar to New Windsor was hit as hard as any in our service areas," Mr. Kremer said. "Between 90 and 95 percent of our customers had their service restored by 2 a.m. [Friday]

Severe thunderstorms that brought damaging winds and heavy rain knocked out electricity to at least 24,000 customers in Anne Arundel, Howard, Prince George's and Montgomery counties yesterday evening. The storms also forced road closings in Howard and disrupted phone service, authorities said. "Right now, it looks like it's straight-line wind damage and probably not a tornado," said Dewey Walston, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sterling, Va. By 10 p.m., about 21,400 customers remained without power, said Rose Maria Kendig, a Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. spokeswoman.

Thunderstorms that rumbled through central Maryland yesterday afternoon brought short, but intense rainfall and gusty winds that knocked down several trees in Monkton in northeastern Baltimore County.A total of 20,317 Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. customers lost power, the bulk of them, 8,900 in northern Anne Arundel County, a utility spokesman said. Among the others affected were 3,000 in Baltimore City; about 800 in the Monkton area; 680 in Carroll County; 580 in Harford County, and 80 in Howard County.

The National Weather Service is calling for Tuesday to be mostly sunny in the Baltimore area, with a high near 94 and south winds around 6 miles per hour. Forecasters warn that isolated thunderstorms are possible Tuesday afternoon and evening and that a few thunderstorms may produce large hail and damaging winds. Tuesday night is expected to be mostly cloudy, with a low around 80 and southeast winds around 7 to 10 miles per hour becoming southwesterly after midnight. There is a 30 percent chance of precipitation.

More than 10,500 customers lost electricity and roads were closed due to high water Sunday evening as two thunderstorms swept through the region. Baltimore City police reported shortly after 9 p.m. that parts of I-83 were flooded. The ramp from I-83 southbound onto West Northern Parkway was flooded. Northern Parkway to Coldspring Lane was closed. In Baltimore County, scattered outages left intersections dark. Police precinct 3, the Franklin precinct, may have been struck by lightning that caused a power outage, police said.

With the early season heat wave that hit Maryland this week came thunderstorms yesterday more typically seen in midsummer. Rain and high winds hit the northwestern parts of the Baltimore area with 2-inch hail falling in Carroll County, according to the National Weather Service. At 5 p.m., just before the cold front arrived from the Ohio Valley, the temperature in downtown Baltimore was 86. When the storm moved through about an hour later, it had fallen to 69. Funnel clouds were reported around western and northern Baltimore County, but no tornadoes were confirmed, said Dewey Walston, a weather service forecaster in Sterling, Va. "It all depended on where you were," Walston said.

Nine consecutive days of oppressive 90-plus-degree heat and sweltering humidity came to an end last night as scattered thunderstorms rolled across the Baltimore region. Before the break in the weather, state health officials updated the number of confirmed heat-related deaths by five, bringing to 36 the number of deaths this season - more than double the 15 who perished during last year's relatively mild summer. The state medical examiner's office has not issued reports for anyone who died since Wednesday.

A series of thunderstorms battered parts of the Baltimore area last night, flooding streets and basements, downing trees and trapping motorists.Northeastern and eastern Baltimore City and from Pikesville to White Marsh in Baltimore County appeared to be the areas hardest hit.Police and firefighters responded to calls from stranded motorists and for flooded basements and downed trees that threatened power lines."