Severe weather nicks eastern county

Intelligencer Journal

Jun 10, 2009 01:26 EST

By MICHAEL YODER, Staff Writer

Parts of southern Lancaster County were rocked Tuesday afternoon by a fast-moving thunderstorm that dropped hail and torrential rain and flooded roads.

 

AccuWeather Forecast

 

Accuweather.com meteorologist John Dlugoenski said Christiana got hit hard, with golf-ball-size hail reported four miles southwest of the town. An area three miles northwest of Gap produced reports of nickel-, quarter- and half dollar-size hail, and penny-size hail was seen outside of Quarryville.

A tornado warning was issued for Christiana and Oxford, Chester County, around 3 p.m., Dlugoenski said, but there were no confirmed reports of a tornado touching down.

"There's been some damage but nothing that would signify that a tornado touched down," Dlugoenski said. "We're very cautious when we see a rotating thunderstorm. That's the first sign that it could produce a tornado."

A slow-moving cold front produced a line of fast-moving thunderstorms ahead of it along the East Coast. Significant wind damage was reported in Maryland and Virginia, including 65 mph gusts in Crownsville, Md., outside Annapolis, but Lancaster County seemed to escape nearly unscathed.

PPL reported several power outages in the afternoon in the county.

Dlugoenski said local rain totals are sketchy, but isolated spots reported more than an inch of rain.

The storm-producing cold front moved into the county overnight, Dlugoenski said, but it was not predicted to create an extreme change in temperatures or humidity today. High temperatures are expected to reach into the 80s today.

"It's not a drastic cold front as far as cool air and real dry air coming in behind it — just slightly less humid," Dlugoenski said.

Another cold front, which could bring similar strong storms, is predicted to move through the county Thursday, Dlugoenski said.

E-mail: myoder@lnpnews.com