Storms hammer D.C. area after record-setting heat

(AP) WASHINGTON - A wave of potentially dangerous storms is pounding the Washington area, knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of customers after a day of record-setting heat.

The storms converged on Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia on Friday night.

As of 11 p.m., Pepco was reporting 153,000 outages in Montgomery County, Md., 95,300 in Prince George's County and 36,000 in Washington.

Dominion Power was reporting 425,000 outages in northern Virginia, 128,000 in the Shenandoah Valley and about 78,000 in the Richmond area.

WRC-TV in Washington is reporting downed trees in Frederick, Md. The news station also reported that the region is under a severe thunderstorm watch until 1 a.m.

The Washington area on Friday broke a record high temperature set almost 80 years ago.

The National Weather Service said that just before 3 p.m., it was 104 degrees at Washington Reagan National Airport. That beats the record of 101 set in 1934.

Baltimore was also experiencing temperatures in the 100s. It was 102 at Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport around 3 p.m. That was shy of the record of 105 set in 1934.