More stormy weather is possible late Wednesday and Thursday in the D.C. region, just a couple of days after storms caused flooding, wind damage and led to three confirmed tornadoes in Maryland.
Expect widely scattered storms to pass through the area late Wednesday evening and overnight, with a stronger band passing through Thursday afternoon, said Storm Team 4 Chief Meteorologist Doug Kammerer.
First, we could see some rain between 11 p.m. Wednesday and 4 a.m. Thursday, with strong wind and the possibility of hail. An even stronger band could move through during the early afternoon Thursday.
Thursday's fast-moving storms are expected to affect most of the region, with possible wind gusts up to and even greater than 60 mph.
The National Weather Service issued a flash flood watch from 8 p.m. Wednesday through Thursday afternoon for D.C., most of Maryland and northern Virginia. The storms could bring an additional 1-2 inches of rain to a region with grounds already soaked by the 6-8 inches of rain we received earlier this week.
That could lead to toppling trees that can no longer stay rooted in saturated soil, said Kammerer.
Area residents should be prepared for power outages due to fallen trees and strong winds.
At Brown's Hardware in Falls Church, Va., the customers, and the calls, started coming in late Wednesday morning.
The family-owned hardware store has begun the process of helping its customers, many who live in older homes on tree-lined streets, get ready to face the possibility of an extended period of time without electricity.
Many are heading to the store with the lessons of last summer in mind, when thousands of residents spent an extended period without power after June 2012's derecho storm battered the region.
But this storm is not expected to be as severe.
A derecho is a severe line of storms with straight line wind damage, gusts to 60 mph and wind damage spreading 250 miles long -- from D.C. to Raleigh, N.C., for example.
The D.C. region gets a derecho, on average, once every four years -- but last year's was so intense that it was categorized as a once-in-30-years event.
Nonetheless, local power companies say they're getting ready.
Le-ha Anderson of Dominion Virginia Power said crews are already on stand-by. "This is a situation where we could be looking at the possibility of widespread power outages..." she said.
Pepco said last month that it's made preparations to be ready for this summer's storm season, including trimming trees and improving both underground and overhead power lines.
The storms should have passed through our region by Thursday evening.
Stay with NBC4 and NBCWashington.com for more as this story develops.
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Photo Credit: Storm Team 4