There’s a severe thunderstorm watch until 11 p.m.

You probably didn’t miss this morning’s thunderclap. Well, neither did Cleveland Park residents, where lightning hit a tree and produced a noise loud enough to make them think it was an explosion.

A storm expected to hit the area this evening is expected to be strong, bringing with it everything from hail to possible tornadoes.

Here we go again? The National Weather Service has issued a severe thunderstorm watch for Washington, D.C., effective until 7 p.m. this evening. Our friends at the Capital Weather Gang are predicting that some strong storms could roll their way into D.C. — though so far, most of the activity has been concentrated between Washington and Baltimore. Winds up to 70 miles per hour are possible, something I’m sure that anyone who just got their…

It’s a good reminder of how small we really are: when the sky turns angry, there’s little that we can do about it but run inside or hope that our flimsy umbrellas don’t snap inside out. Our pool photographers, on the other hand, have no issues with challenging such furious aerial developments — take a peek at some of the images from yesterday’s big storm we culled from DCist’s Flickr pool….

We’ve written at length about England’s The Go! Team and their fantastic live shows. The last time they were in town, they drove the Black Cat crowd into a frenzy, and now they’ll be doing the same thing at the 9:30 Club tonight for a late show (10 p.m. doors). We recently spoke to Ninja, the band’s energetic female MC who serves as the live show’s focal point, on the phone from Los Angeles where…

Written by DCist contributor Claire Compton Like the classic summer fling, Restaurant Week has officially left us, leaving us with a bittersweet mix of emotions. The lucky ones are gushing about that new restaurant they discovered and how they were wooed with an impossibly fantastic meal that didn’t drain their wallet. Others weren’t so lucky. They began the week with a wide-eyed idealism, believing this meal was going to be the one, only to be…

The folks at the Rock and Roll Hotel sure know how to get us interested in something. They sent out an email last night saying tickets will go on sale July 20th for a “blog favorite” band who will be playing two nights at H Street venue. The email added “Hint: The name of the band is has something to do with applauding and a greeting.” While “Yeah” isn’t really a greeting, our guess is…

>> Fort Reno has The Caribbean, Len Bias and The Ardennes. But the National Weather Service has a Severe Thunder Storm Watch from 2 to 9 p.m., so you might want to hedge your bets and make a back-up plan. >> Ohio’s alt-country rawkers Two Cow Garage stop by the Red and the Black tonight, with Minneapolis’ Birthday Suits and Richmond’s Clint Maul for what should be a loud, fun show all around. $8,…

Good morning, Washington. You know, it didn’t seem like that much of a storm. But apparently last night’s brief thunder and lightning wrought more than their fair share of havoc: lightning struck a shopping center in Maryland, badly damaging it. In fact, WJLA had footage of the shopping center’s laundromat last night — it had been completely obliterated. We had no idea! Still, it at least appears that the power system wasn’t too badly affected:…