The quick-moving thunderstorm that passed through the southern part of Lancaster County Tuesday afternoon dropped nickel-sized hail and flooded some roads in the region.
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But as bad as the torrential downpour was, the good news is no tornado touched down.
Weather watchers had a few anxious moments, though.
National Weather Service meteorologist Aaron Tyburski said the cold front that stormed through the area around 3 p.m. Tuesday "stalled" around the Pennsylvania-Maryland border. An approaching front could bring that nasty weather back Thursday.
VIDEO: AccuWeather forecast "It's become the focal point for other systems to ride on," Tyburski said. "And right now there's one coming in from the Plains that could bring that same kind of weather back here."
While Tyburski said there's little chance the cold front's return will bring tornadoes to the county, at this time of year "it's difficult to tell."
"It's not out of the question that any storm could develop into a tornado," Tyburski said. "If enough sunshine gets in there and heats things up, starts percolating the atmosphere, that could start stirring things up."
Tuesday's storm lasted roughly half an hour, Tyburski said, but the damage it left made up for its brevity. The hail deposited on the county averaged the size of a nickel, just less than an inch in diameter.
While most of the county received only traces of rain, Christiana, to the county's southeast, was hit hardest, with golf-ball-sized hail reported about four miles southwest of the borough. The heaviest rainfall was about an inch, reported in the southern part of the county and neighboring communities.
Tyburski said Lancaster's storm was "the starting point for the area," and the front blew through Maryland and Virginia over Tuesday evening.
But another one to one-and-a-half inches of rain could soak the already-soggy county between now and Friday morning, when the weather system is likely to break up, he said.
The mercury today is expected to reach about 84 degrees, with chances of thundershowers increasing to about 70 percent tonight.
The first heavy rains of the new front will likely hit after sunset tonight, Tyburski said, and should continue overnight through Thursday and into Friday, with daytime temperatures in the 80s and nights in the mid 60s.
Once the rain stops, Tyburski said, dry air from the north should swoop in and give the county a "nice weekend."
Staff writer Dan Rorabaugh can be reached at drorabaugh@LNPnews.com or 481-6020.
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