High heat and humidity today will fuel the today's thunderstorms. The warm and humid air mass will create an unstable atmosphere, which will support strong updrafts within a thunderstorm. This could potentially lead to strong downbursts as short-lived storms could become more organized. Downbursts are essentially powerful winds that descend from a thunderstorm and spread out rapidly in all directions once they reach the surface. The wind speeds could exceed 100 mph, which could cause as much damage as an EF-0 or EF-1 tornado!
Imagine you're holding a bucket of water over your driveway. Now— you dump it straight down. The water slams to the ground and splashes out in every direction. That is basically the setup of a downburst— but with wind instead of water.
A core of rain and hail that is suspended in the upper portion of the storm will quickly fall to the ground. This drags a lot of air down with it, which helps the wind speed increase. There are two main types of downbursts: Microbursts & Macrobursts
Downbursts can be accompanied by heavy rain as well. Storms this afternoon and evening could produce heavy rainfall rates, anywhere from 1-2" per hour. This could lead to scattered instances of flooding across central Maryland and the Eastern Shore. Flood Watches will be in place through the second half of the day as excessive runoff could lead to flooding around flood-prone and poor drainage areas.
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