How likely is it that the intense storms over W Virginia now make it over the mountains and into the metro area this evening?

We lost power for about 4 minutes here in Lake Ridge (in other words, just long enough for everything to blink 12:00AM, lol). Did anyone else in Lake Ridge lose theirs?

There is a storm in the vicinity but there is no lightning with it, so I assume it wasn't storm related (duh). Usually the only reason we lose power is because someone flips their car into a pole or construction or something. Oh well...just as long as it doesn't go out again.

Getting some lightning over Southern Fairfax County now, it looks like.

Here it comes!

In the words of our fearless leader: "Bring it on!"

Severe thunderstorm warning for DC, Arlington, PG, Alexandria, Falls Church, and Fairfax until 615p.

Quiet, modest, well-behaved rain in Annandale.

Fitting to end this month with a severe thunderstorm warning in D.C. I guess! I wonder how many this makes for the month.. will have to do a little digging or find someone to dig for me.

The above was a report not a prediction. (Who knows what happen next!)

Making up for the "DC Donut" again--just look at that radar...

pouring rain here in arlington, but the sky is strangely bright and i haven't heard any thunder. arlington has been missing the latest storms...

We just got clobbered with some seriously strong winds and pouring rain.

Reasonably heavy rain on the Bethesda/NW DC border, but otherwise.... No thunder, lightning, etc.

There was no thunder and lightening with that storm. The worst of it (red/pink on radar) was over my head, but didn't hear anything but gusting winds and pounding rain.

Ian: I dunno about the warnings for the month, but I have counted 16 severe thunderstorm and tornado WATCHES alone that PWC (and the rest of the immediate metro area) has been under this year. I may have accidentally counted some 2 times, so we've been under about 12-16 watches this year. That's ridiculous. I remember when it was a huge deal when we were under a watch, now they're just as common as a partly cloudy day around here.

NWS radar is looking pretty interesting out to our west right now...

Brace for impact...a line of really big storms stretching from the middle of Loudoun county to that weird tip of Culpeper that juts out to the east about to smash into us.

Culpeper, Loudoun, Fairfax, Prince William and Fauquier under severe thunderstorm warnings. I assume that a new one is going to go up very shortly for the rest of Prince William and Fairfax...

Yeah that line has certainly held together well.

A reminder about our new feature on the tracking station -- for any warnings that light up on the map, click the appropriate label in the legend to get the detailed warning text.

Wow, it just got black as night here in North Stafford. Heavy duty thunderstorm on the way....

I'm looking at the LMA data, and I was wondering if anyone knows what the significance of the scale is. e.g., what does a "5" on the LMA Source Scale mean? What does a 75 mean? Are they arbitray numbers? The number of strikes per x minutes? The number of receivers that caught the strike?

Hell-o, what happened to the warnings?

Apparently this is all we get:

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BALTIMORE MD/WASHINGTON DC
841 PM EDT MON JUN 30 2008

DCZ001-MDZ009-013-016-VAZ042-052>055-010200-
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA DC-MONTGOMERY MD-PRINCE GEORGES MD-STAFFORD VA-
LOUDOUN VA-CHARLES MD-PRINCE WILLIAM/MANASSAS/MANASSAS PARK VA-
ARLINGTON/FALLS CHURCH/ALEXANDRIA VA-FAIRFAX VA-
841 PM EDT MON JUN 30 2008

...STRONG THUNDERSTORMS TO AFFECT THE DISTRICT OF
COLUMBIA...ARLINGTON...MONTGOMERY...PRINCE GEORGES...STAFFORD...
LOUDOUN...CHARLES...PRINCE WILLIAM...MANASSAS...MANASSAS PARK AND
FAIRFAX COUNTIES...

AT 841 PM EDT...DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A LINE OF STRONG
THUNDERSTORMS FROM STERLING...SOUTH TO STAFFORD...MOVING EAST
AT 30 MPH.

THIS STORM WILL BE CAPABLE OF PRODUCING SMALL HAIL AND WIND GUSTS TO
50 MPH.

MUCH OF THE WASHINGTON DC METROPOLITAN AREA...SOUTH ALONG THE
INTERSTATE 95 CORRIDOR TO NEAR STAFFORD...WILL BE AFFECTED BY THIS
STORM.

It's pouring like mad here in Lake Ridge.

Alls quiet in Silver Spring.

Great. Alexandria is going to get nailed. Again.

Pouring rain with a little lightening and thunder on the side here in Merrifield. Wind didn't kick up much ahead of it.

Same as ~sg - here in Springfield, very heavy rain with some lightning in the distance.

Heavy rain, thunder and lightning in Alexandria. At least the rain isn't blowing horizontal this time. Previous storm today was way worse in terms of wind.

Re: Warnings
Severe thunderstorm warnings are not issued unless warning criteria are met. The criteria do NOT include:
- Heavy rain, no matter how blinding
- Winds less than 58 mph
- Lightning, intense or not
- Hail less than 3/4 inches

Capital Climate

I was out in the storm that blew through Alexandria this afternoon around 5:30. That was some of the strongest rain and wind I've ever experienced, with almost no lightning or thunder. Strangely, it was very localized to around Belle Haven and Fort Hunt Roads in Fairfax south of Old Town. Snapped power poles, signals out, trees and branches down, and debris all over the road. Just a half-mile north and south of this area, no problems (just rain). Was this a microburst?

@ Huntington Mark

YES! I think you are right! Wind/rain was blowing horizontal at one point. Some big branches and trees down in the City of Alexandria (see SPC for damage report) and the damage appears to be multi-directional (i.e. some branches fell in an easterly direction, others westerly). It definitely wasn't a run-of-the-mill t-storm.

Hey Capital Weather Gang,

For a minute or so just now, the Special Weather Statement for **841 PM** re-appeared then disappeared from the Sterling map for these counties: DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA DC-MONTGOMERY MD-PRINCE GEORGES MD-STAFFORD VA-
LOUDOUN VA-CHARLES MD-PRINCE WILLIAM/MANASSAS/MANASSAS PARK VA-
ARLINGTON/FALLS CHURCH/ALEXANDRIA VA-FAIRFAX VA-

I clicked on it to see what special weather statement was being propagated after the bulk of this round of storms had passed through those counties.

This may have been a simple human mistake, or it may have been related to the troubles over the past week and a half with transmitting the Severe Thunderstorm Warnings.

@ alexandria:

The other thing about this storm was that an hour earlier, there was nothing on radar approaching Alexandria, DC or the airport. It seemed to come out of nowhere.

Hey CWG again,

Ok, now, the 943 PM Special Weather Statement for Anne Arundel and PG is (finally) showing up on the Sterling map. It was not there while I was composing my previous post but just showed up about 2 minutes ago. Somebody or something may be having troubles.

The National Weather Service confirmed wind damage in Alexandria around 5:30 p.m.

Mark and Alexandria my advice would be to skip happy hour on Mondays or to step away from the pipe.

@ Huntington Mark

Whatever it was, it was a very intense burst. My neighbors were all wondering what the heck happened. I was checking out the radar at that time and the cell deepened just as it went over Alexandria-northern Mt Vernon (reds --> pink).