A tornado briefly touched down along Holly Corner Road in Stafford County yesterday evening, according to the National Weather Service.

The twister was spotted by trained weather-watchers on the ground at around 6:05 p.m., said Brian Guyer, a meteorologist in the weather service Sterling office.

“We’ve got a lot of damage reports” about downed trees, he said, but there were no immediate reports of structural damage or injuries.

Stafford County fire and rescue authorities could not be reached for details.

Holly Corner Road runs south of U.S. 17, near the University of Mary Washington’s College of Graduate and Professional Studies.

The storm then moved east over the Potomac River and a tornado warning was posted for Charles County, Md.

Guyer said a separate, powerful thunderstorm with heavy winds and nickel-size hail pummeled the Spotsylvania Courthouse area, where there were also reports of trees down.

“The storms came up from Fluvanna, through Spotsylvania and into Stafford. There were a couple different storms,” Guyer said.

The storms blew in with strong winds and isolated torrential rains that affected rush-hour traffic in some areas along U.S. 1 and Interstate 95.

Central Virginia and Southern Maryland were under a tornado watch until 10 p.m. The storms in the immediate Fredericksburg area knocked out power for about 105 Dominion Virginia Power customers, said utility spokesman Richard Zuercher.

“I would venture to say there were scattered outages,” he said.

To reach RUSTY DENNEN: 540/374-5431 rdennen@freelancestar.com