Juan Herrera
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON (WMAL) – We’re still weeks away from the official start of summer and even though parts of Maryland have already seen considerable tornado activity, the National Weather Service warns that there still could be more severe weather on the way.
A day after the National Weather Service confirmed that a tornado touched down Thursday afternoon in the Glenelg area of Howard County, Maryland, Jason Elliott, a meteorologist with the National Weather, said we have seen more tornado activity in the area this year than in past seasons.
“The past few years have been relatively quiet as far as tornadoes are concerned,” Elliott said. “This year’s been certainly more than those years, but we’ve had other busy years for tornadic activity and this is certainly the time of year when it’s most likely to happen.”
The confirmed tornado that touched down in Howard County is just the latest instance of tornado activity that has impacted the area. On May 23, an EF-1 tornado hit the Clarksville area of Maryland and in April, weak tornadoes were also reported in the Monkton area of Baltimore County and in Dorchester County.
Despite the increased tornado activity in the area, Elliott said it isn’t anything out of the ordinary. “It’s more [activity] than we’ve been used to the past several years, but not really an excessively high number,” Elliott said.
With the summer season on the way, Elliott mentions that the risk of more tornadic activity impacting the area is still possible.
“It’s a little less likely to happen later in the summer as you go because it becomes less favorable, but it can happen any time of the year,” Elliott said.
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