A pretty big storm swept the US yesterday. It started in Missouri and worked its way eastward until it passed through Virginia and both shores of Maryland. I think I heard reports of tornados in the mid-west. As it came to the DC area (just in time for the evening news), tornados were touching down south of the district. Lots of damage, and 3 dead as of this morning.
The newscasters and weather forcasters were rather serious about the power of this storm (even the ones that were broadcasting outside, go figure). This storm was travelling at around 50 MPH as it passed through this area, twice as fast as storms move out in the midwest from what we're told here.
This area isn't really tornado country, even if there is the odd funnel cloud about once a year. Even so, it's not the kind of area that gets tornados with such power or regularity that the New York Times has front-page stories about the deadly tornados of Maryland...
Update: On the radio this evening, it was reported that while the tornado was passing through Maryland, it was an F5 for a brief period of time. (Don't remember where, though). Also, this is the same weather system that started out as snowstorms in in the upper midwest early last week. That's something to make your spidey-senses tingle!
