Strong to severe thunderstorms were moving through Central Maryland late Thursday afternoon, bringing wind gusts up to 50 mph and hail, according to the National Weather Service.
Severe storm warnings were issued about 4:30 p.m. for parts of Montgomery and Howard counties, with strong storms meanwhile over eastern Howard and northern Anne Arundel counties.
"Clusters and/or broken lines of storms" with damaging winds and some hail were expected across the Maryland, Delaware and Virginia on Thursday, according to the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center. They also "could spawn a brief tornado or two," forecasters said.
The storm center included Maryland in an area with a 2 percent chance of tornadoes, 5 percent chance of hail, and 15 percent chance of damaging winds.
Rain that passed through early Thursday morning was heavy at times. Nearly half an inch of rain fell between midnight and 1 a.m., with about two-thirds of an inch in total over nine hours.
More rain is expected this weekend as the remnants of Tropical Storm Bill follow a path of moisture up the Mississippi Valley and across the Ohio River valley toward the mid-Atlantic.
Meteorologists at the weather service's Baltimore/Washington forecast office said to expect "widespread coverage of showers and thunderstorms" Saturday night into Sunday. While it's difficult to say where the heaviest bands of rain will track, there are risks of severe storms and flooding.
"One thing is for certain," the forecasters wrote. "Humidity will be up ... cloud cover will be high and the chance of precipitation significant ... so not a great weekend."