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Region Wakes to Storm Warnings, Damage

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The region has been rocked overnight and into the morning by severe weather.

As recently as the 6 a.m. a tornado warning was issued and then expired.

Overnight, a Harris Teeter grocery store in Bristow, Va. had ceiling panels blown out, a tree blown into some power lines, and a funnel cloud spotted near the Intersection of Centreville Road (Va. 28) and Prince William County Parkway all at 10:45 p.m., according to the National Weather Service.

A tornado was confirmed in Nokesville, Va., in western Prince William County, just three minutes later.

Earlier in the evening, funnel clouds were spotted across Stafford County between 6 and 6:15 p.m. One-inch hail and a large tree fell in Dumfries, according to the weather service.

A tornado watch continues for the Potomac Communities and the rest of the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Region until 3 p.m.

While weather conditions are quiet right now, weather service radar shows another line of thunderstorms that bears watching, moving into northeast from Roanoke.

When funnel clouds formed over Stafford County, neighbors who live on Wild Rose Drive off Village Center Parkway grabbed their cameras and pointed them to the skies.

“The sky turned green and it got really quiet, and then I saw the funnel lower from the cloud. I didn’t touch down but I thought it was going to hit my neighbor’s house,” said Sabrina Mellinger.

It didn’t hit anyone’s house, and no one was injured. But neighbors say they were rattled by the menacing skies.

“I grabbed my camera when I saw the funnel cloud going the other way, away from our house,” said Cheryl Wood.