Alert archive / Maryland / Tornado Watches in 2026

Tornado Watch 605

August 20, 20265 states

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at Aug 20, 2026, 2:58 PM EDT for 5 states. It was in force for 7 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: Aug 20, 2026, 2:58 PM EDT (18:58 UTC)
Expired: Aug 20, 2026, 10:00 PM EDT
In force: 7 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center
Largest hail expected: 1.5 in
Strongest gust expected: 65 kt

All 46 counties

Kent County, DE, New Castle County, DE, Sussex County, DE, Anne Arundel County, MD, Baltimore County, MD, Calvert County, MD, Caroline County, MD, Carroll County, MD, Cecil County, MD, Charles County, MD, City of Baltimore, MD, Dorchester County, MD, Harford County, MD, Howard County, MD, Kent County, MD, Montgomery County, MD, Prince George's County, MD, Queen Anne's County, MD, Saint Mary's County, MD, Somerset County, MD, Talbot County, MD, Wicomico County, MD, Worcester County, MD, Atlantic County, NJ, Burlington County, NJ, Camden County, NJ, Cape May County, NJ, Cumberland County, NJ, Gloucester County, NJ, Salem County, NJ, Bucks County, PA, Chester County, PA, Delaware County, PA, Montgomery County, PA, Philadelphia County, PA, Arlington County, VA, City of Alexandria, VA, City of Fairfax, VA, City of Falls Church, VA, City of Fredericksburg, VA, City of Manassas, VA, City of Manassas Park, VA, Fairfax County, VA, King George County, VA, Prince William County, VA, Stafford County, VA

The radar

The Dover AFB radar (KDOX), 77 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 18:59 UTC, the scan nearest the moment this went out.

Open the radar archive at this moment

The archived warnings, watches and discussions in force at that minute are drawn over the scan, this one among them.

What SPC expected

The probabilities SPC published with the watch, for the watch area over its life.

Two or more tornadoes: 40%
One or more EF2 to EF5 tornadoes: 20%
Ten or more severe wind reports: 60%
One or more gusts of 65 knots or more: 30%
Ten or more severe hail reports: 20%
One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more: 10%
Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports: 90%

Warnings issued inside it

30 tornado, severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings for its counties while it was in force.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Aug 20, 4:16 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	PHI	Kent	29 min
Aug 20, 4:38 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	PHI	Atlantic	37 min
Aug 20, 4:41 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	PHI	Atlantic, Cape May, Cumberland	4 hr
Aug 20, 4:50 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	PHI	New Castle	40 min
Aug 20, 4:59 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Destructive damage threat	PHI	Chester	46 min
Aug 20, 5:05 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PHI	Caroline, Kent, Queen Anne's, Talbot	40 min
Aug 20, 5:22 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	PHI	Chester, Delaware	38 min
Aug 20, 5:24 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	PHI	Atlantic	4 hr
Aug 20, 5:27 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	PHI	New Castle	48 min
Aug 20, 5:30 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	PHI	Kent, Queen Anne's	30 min
Aug 20, 5:39 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	PHI	New Castle	4 hr
Aug 20, 5:39 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	PHI	Kent	36 min
Aug 20, 5:40 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PHI	Kent	50 min
Aug 20, 6:03 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	PHI	Kent	42 min
Aug 20, 6:09 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PHI	Kent, New Castle	51 min
Aug 20, 6:13 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PHI	New Castle	47 min
Aug 20, 6:21 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PHI	Kent, Sussex	39 min
Aug 20, 6:26 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	PHI	Bucks, Montgomery, Philadelphia	4 hr
Aug 20, 6:38 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PHI	Atlantic, Cape May, Cumberland	37 min
Aug 20, 6:41 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	AKQ	Dorchester	34 min
Aug 20, 6:53 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning Considerable damage threat	PHI	Kent	105 min
Aug 20, 6:55 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	LWX	Saint Mary's	22 min
Aug 20, 6:57 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PHI	Kent, Sussex	48 min
Aug 20, 7:01 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	PHI	Atlantic, Cape May, Cumberland	29 min
Aug 20, 7:02 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	AKQ	Dorchester, Wicomico	43 min
Aug 20, 7:08 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	LWX	Saint Mary's	16 min
Aug 20, 7:08 PM EDT	Tornado Warning Tornado observed	PHI	Cape May	22 min
Aug 20, 7:10 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PHI	Atlantic, Cape May, Cumberland	50 min
Aug 20, 8:23 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	AKQ	Wicomico, Worcester	27 min
Aug 20, 8:56 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	AKQ	Somerset, Wicomico, Worcester	115 min

Discussions around it

SPC mesoscale discussions over the same counties from four hours before the watch to its end.

The nearest sounding before it

Washington/Dulle, VA (KIAD), launched 12:00Z, 7.0 hours before the alert went out and 105 km from the middle of its area. This is the routine balloon launch nearest before it, the air the forecaster had in hand, not a measurement taken for the alert.

Skew-T log-p

Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed.

Hodograph

The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km.

Mixed-layer CAPE: 97 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -72 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1192 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 47 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 115 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 230 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: -0.0
Supercell composite: -0.0

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Aug 20, 1:53 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Kent, New Castle	2 hr
Aug 20, 2:31 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Kent, New Castle, Sussex	7 hr
Aug 20, 4:26 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Kent, New Castle	2 hr
Aug 20, 6:42 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Kent, Sussex	93 min

Nearby

Tornado Watches in Maryland, 2026 Tornado Watches in Virginia, 2026 Tornado Watches in New Jersey, 2026 Every tornado watch in 2026

Sources

The product and its follow-ups from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service and Storm Prediction Center text; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.