National Weather Service meteorologists are heading to Baltimore today to determine if a tornado ripped through the city and county during Friday evening’s severe thunderstorms.

Crews will be inspecting storm damage and they could make a determination as early as this evening.

Fierce winds and heavy rains battered neighborhoods such as Canton, Catonsville and Dundalk during the Friday evening storm. The National Weather Service briefly put the city and surrounding areas under a tornado warning until 6:15 p.m.

The storm winds uprooted big trees at Canton Waterfront Park, flipped tractor-trailers at the eastern edge of the city near Dundalk and peeled off part of the roof at the Merritt Clubs Canton gym. Merritt emailed members Saturday morning to say the Canton gym was closed while they inspect the damage.

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In Canton, the Merritt athletic club in Canton sustained severe damage, including to its roof, after a brief but powerful storm passed through Baltimore on Friday, May 16, 2025.
In Canton, the Merritt athletic club in Canton sustained severe damage, including to its roof, after a brief but powerful storm passed through Baltimore on Friday, May 16, 2025. (Ulysses Muñoz/The Baltimore Banner)

“The sky turned green. Our doors burst open. We saw a bunch of things flying in the sky,” Austin Insisienmay, who works at a Canton nail salon, told The Banner on Friday. “We had to lock the doors because the wind was really strong.”

WBAL-TV reported that city inspectors had condemned the gym building by late Friday. The station’s meteorologist, Tony Pann, shared a bystander’s photo that showed a funnel-shaped cloud over Catonsville.

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There have been no injuries reported.

Some 775 homes across Maryland — roughly 15,000 customers — were without power on Saturday morning, according to the Baltimore Gas and Electric Company outage map.

The storm clouds had passed by Friday night, and Saturday afternoon was forecast to be sunny and clear for the 150th Preakness Stakes, with high temperatures in the 80s.

This article will be updated.