Dangerous storms put more than 100 million people at risk across the Northeast on Saturday, triggering flash flooding as Canadian wildfire smoke lingered over several American cities.
A tornado watch was issued for New Jersey, and flash floods slammed the New York City area.
Flash flood warnings struck parts of the Northeast while thunderstorms, flooding and strong winds swept the region.
Valerie Castro reported the developments on July 19, 2026.
Severe thunderstorms swept across Maryland on Saturday, toppling trees and power lines, damaging homes and businesses, and knocking out electricity to thousands as tornado warnings, flash flooding and dangerous winds threatened the state.
The storm passed through central and southern Maryland, hitting parts of Anne Arundel County the worst, National Weather Service meteorologist Kyle Pallozzi said; officials recorded 0.7 inches of rainfall in that area and measured wind gusts of 60 mph. Wayne Lewis said a tree fell on his front porch in Pasadena and damaged a recently replaced roof and gutters, adding, "You can’t get out the front. You have to go out the back," and "It’s going to be a little bit of work."
Pallozzi said weather officials received 15 to 20 reports of trees falling on homes. More than 27,000 people were without power just before 7 p.m., with over 20,000 outages in Anne Arundel County, according to the Baltimore Gas and Electric outage map.
The National Weather Service warned of "multiple rounds" of severe thunderstorms expected across most of the state, with winds up to 70 mph, large hail and flash flooding, and said the severe risk remained until 10 p.m. Tornado watches were issued until 9 p.m. for the city of Baltimore and Anne Arundel, Calvert, Caroline, Cecil, Harford, Kent, Queen Anne’s, Talbot and Baltimore counties, the Maryland Department of Emergency Management said.
Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport had about 40 cancellations and nearly 200 delays. In Ellicott City, the 271-year-old Wayside Inn was struck by lightning and a fire started around 3:30 p.m.; innkeeper Joe Xu said there were no injuries and the fire was under control by 5 p.m., and added, "We don’t know when we’re going to reopen. We don’t know how bad was that damage. We don’t know how long it’ll take for repairing." Early Saturday morning, a home in Gaithersburg caught fire after a possible lightning strike, a fire official said.
Skies were hazy Saturday morning and the smoke that blanketed the region Thursday and Friday cleared a bit Saturday afternoon, but most of the state remained under a Code Orange air quality alert, meaning conditions may be unhealthy for sensitive groups including children, older people and people with underlying health conditions. Southern Maryland had slightly better air quality, and forecasts said the state would likely be under a Code Yellow alert by Sunday though "the smoke may again be noticeable" as another wave enters the region, Bob Oravec, a lead forecaster at the National Weather Service in Maryland, said. Oravec added that "the source of the smoke is going to continue on for certainly a week, probably," and officials noted wildfires were burning in Ontario, Canada, and in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Minnesota, which U.S. officials have closed. Air quality alerts peaked Friday after smoke moved from Canada through the Midwest toward Maryland, and officials said it was the worst air quality event since June 2023 when wildfire smoke from Canada engulfed the region for six days. Heat indices also broke triple digits Saturday, prompting advisories.
The Philadelphia region saw clearing smoke give way to a renewed threat of high winds, heavy rain, flooding and possible tornadoes, with the severe forecast arriving a week after storms that led the city to declare a disaster emergency. National Weather Service meteorologist Mike Lee said, "With the early threat, we lucked out," and warned that a second round of storms was forming. The NWS said rainfall rates of two to three inches per hour were possible — enough to cause flash floods in urban areas — and issued a flash-flood watch in eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey and northern Delaware along I-95 and to its northwest. Half-inch-thick hail capable of denting a car was also a threat, and the forecasting service put the tornado risk for the affected region between 5% and 9%, saying "the risk of a strong (EF2) tornado is notably high." Early Saturday afternoon, the Philadelphia Office of Emergency Management announced a tornado watch in effect until 9 p.m.; Dominick Mireles, deputy managing director of the city’s office of emergency management, said the city had cleared nearly 500 trees with the help of six contractors and was prepared if the storm created more damage. The Phillies moved up their home game with the New York Mets to 3 p.m. to reduce the chance of a rain delay or cancellation.
Farther west, the city of Austin issued bans on watercraft and activity on lakes and rivers after severe flooding, imposing waterway restrictions through early next week and issuing a waterways ban until Tuesday. Authorities opened the Mansfield Dam floodgates for the first time since 2019, and officials in Austin and Travis County barred activity on lakes and rivers following the flooding.
The U.S. hurricane center said Tropical Depression Two formed in the Gulf and had an 80% chance of developing into a cyclone in the next 48 hours near Florida, with heavy downpours expected along the Gulf Coast and in the Southeast.
Cleanup was underway in parts of the Northeast after powerful storms pummeled the region, and Valerie Castro said tornadoes touched down in Pennsylvania.
Wildfire smoke continued to blanket parts of the Midwest, with Minneapolis, Detroit and Chicago ranking among the worst air quality in the world, Castro said.
Officials issued a flash-flood warning for all five New York City boroughs through Saturday afternoon and warned that roads, basements and subway stations could flood as heavy rain moved through the area; flash flooding left several major interstates under water and prompted high-water rescues that left several motorists trapped in Queens.
At the height of the storms, roughly 240,000 customers lost power, with Virginia leading the country at just over 64,000 outages.
Sunday was expected to continue the active severe weather pattern, putting more than 40 million Americans at risk across the Mid-Atlantic and the Carolinas. In New Jersey, Gov. Mikie Sherrill asked residents to plan weekend travel accordingly.
Forecasters said a level 2 out of 5 severe threat would shift to include more of eastern North Carolina and Virginia, including Raleigh, Norfolk and Greensboro, with damaging wind gusts the main threat and the potential for localized flash flooding as storms move over the same areas and allow rainfall to stack up.