Lightning struck a home on Exline Road near Hancock on the evening of the 23rd. The resulting roof fire caused $50,000 damage to the structure.
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Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS LWX wrote it up.
Lightning struck a home on Exline Road near Hancock on the evening of the 23rd. The resulting roof fire caused $50,000 damage to the structure.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Baltimore/Washington wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jul 23, 2:00 PM EST, 6 hours 45 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BALTIMORE MD/WASHINGTON DC 300 PM EDT WED JUL 23 2003 SCATTERED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS DEVELOPING AGAIN OVER THIS AFTERNOON. PLENTY OF FOCUS FOR STORMS WITH THE FRONT IN THE AREA AND AN APPROACHING SHORTWAVE. STORMS AGAIN WILL HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO BE STRONG TO SEVERE...CAPES AVERAGING 1500 J/KG...BUT HELICITY NOT TOO IMPRESSIVE. THESE INDICES ARE MUCH LOWER THAN 24 HOURS AGO. WILL CARRY LIKELY POPS INITIALLY TONIGHT. MODELS SHOW STRONG UPPER DIVERGENCE ACROSS THE WEST ZONES AND OVER THE EAST ZONES THROUGH 03Z ...WITH THE DIVERGENCE BULLSEYE PULLING TO THE NORTHEAST AROUND 06Z. MOISTURE IS PLENTIFUL OVERNIGHT...SO MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH SOME PATCHY FOG AFTER MIDNIGHT WITH CONDITIONS IMPROVING BETWEEN 12Z-14Z. WILL CARRY CHANCE OF SHOWERS/THUNDERSTORMS TOMORROW WITH FRONT HANGING AROUND. WENT WITH A BLEND OF MAV/MET GUIDANCE FOR MAX TEMPS THURSDAY. /CPW ...LONGER TERM...THU NIGHT THRU WED... WILL CONTINUE CHANCE TSRA INTO THU EVE WITH WEAK FRONT STILL OVER CWA BUT EXPECT REMAINING ACTIVITY TO WEAKEN WITH LOSS OF HEATING. MODELS ALSO FCST FRONT TO WASH OUT THU NIGHT SO NO FOCUS WILL BE PRESENT FOR CONVECTION FRI THRU SAT MORN. WITH SOME LLRH LINGERING WILL HAVE STCU BUT MOSUNNY SHUD BE OK FOR FRI AND EARLY SAT. BY SAT EVE...ENERGY FROM SHORT WAVE OVER THE GREAT LAKES WILL APPROACH. THE SHORT WAVE AND ASSOCIATED FRONT ARE FCST TO MOVE FROM N TO S ACROSS CWA ON SUN. SOME UNCERTAINTY ON EXACTLY HOW FAST THIS FRONT WILL MOVE THROUGH AND WHERE IT WILL EVENTUALLY STALL. FOR NOW...THINK FRONT WILL STALL NEAR NC/VA BORDER ON MON. WILL HAVE CHANCE TSRA IN FCST SAT NIGHT THRU MON TO COVER ANY PRECIP THIS FRONT PRODUCES. WILL NOT BE WASHOUT...JUST SCT ACTIVITY MAINLY IN THE AFT AND EVE HRS. THE BDRY WILL PUSH NWARD ON TUE AS A WARM FRONT INTO CWA AND IS FCST TO REMAIN OVER REGION THRU WED. MODELS SHOW A WEAK LOW PASSING E ALONG THE FRONT WHICH WILL BRING THE THREAT FOR SCT CONVECTION. MMARGRAF/MAYES .LWX... DC...NONE. MD...NONE. VA...NONE. WV...NONE. MARINE...NONE.
DCZ001-MDZ002>007-009>011-013-014-016>018-VAZ021-025>031-036>042- 050>057-WVZ048>055-240900- HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK...UPDATED NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BALTIMORE MD/WASHINGTON DC 1255 PM EDT WED JUL 23 2003 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR MARYLAND WEST OF THE CHESAPEAKE BAY AND EAST OF GARRETT COUNTY...THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA...NORTHERN VIRGINIA...THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL SHENANDOAH VALLEY...AND THE EASTERN PANHANDLE OF WEST VIRGINIA. .DAY ONE...TODAY THERE IS A SLIGHT RISK OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS THIS AFTERNOON ACROSS THE EASTERN PANHANDLE OF WEST VIRGINIA...NORTHERN VIRGINIA...THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA...AND MUCH OF MARYLAND. SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED TO DEVELOP THIS AFTERNOON AS A COLD FRONT MOVES SLOWLY EAST INTO THE AREA. AGAIN TODAY...SOME OF THESE THUNDERSTORMS MAY BECOME SEVERE AND BE CAPABLE OF PRODUCING DAMAGING WINDS AND LARGE HAIL. HEAVY RAINFALL IS ALSO A CONCERN THIS AFTERNOON. MINOR FLOODING OF LOW LYING AND POOR DRAINAGE AREAS WILL BE POSSIBLE WITH THE STRONGER STORMS. THE MOST LIKELY TIME FOR SEVERE WEATHER WILL BE BETWEEN 3 AND 8 PM. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN... NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION MAY BE REQUIRED BY MID AFTERNOON. CPW
MDZ003-WVZ052-240015- SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BALTIMORE MD/WASHINGTON DC 616 PM EDT WED JUL 23 2003 ...HEAVY RAIN AROUND MARTINSBURG AND HAGERSTOWN... HEAVY RAIN HAS PERSISTED FOR MORE THAN AN HOUR OVER BERKELEY COUNTY WEST VIRGINIA AND WASHINGTON COUNTY MARYLAND. AROUND THE MARTINSBURG AND HAGERSTOWN AREAS AROUND AN INCH AND A HALF OF RAIN HAS FALLEN. THE HEAVY RAIN WILL MOVE OUT BETWEEN 6:30 AND 7:30 THIS EVENING BUT WITH NEARLY TWO INCHES OF RAIN MINOR FLOODING CAN BE EXPECTED. NEVER CROSS AREAS WHERE HIGH WATER IS OVER A ROAD. YOU CAN BE CARRIED AWAY RATHER EASILY. WATCH FOR FLOODING IN LOW SPOTS AND VALLEYS. STRONG
MDZ005-232345- SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BALTIMORE MD/WASHINGTON DC 643 PM EDT WED JUL 23 2003 ...THUNDERSTORM MOVING INTO NORTHERN CARROLL COUNTY... A GUSTY THUNDERSTORM WILL MOVE ACROSS NORTHERN CARROLL COUNTY. THIS WILL AFFECT TANEYTOWN AND THEN MANCHESTER. EXPECT WIND GUSTS TO 40 MILES AN HOUR WHICH MAY BE ENOUGH TO DOWN SOME TREE LIMBS AND POWER LINES. STRONG
The Sterling radar (KLWX), 75 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 01:46 UTC.
1 lightning. Local standard time, as filed.
Lightning started a fire which severely damaged a home.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Maryland in 2003Every state in 2003This day in weather historyWarnings in Maryland, July 2003
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5369159.