After a deluge that hit the DMV Thursday, more showers and thunderstorms are expected to lurk Friday afternoon and evening as a cold front works its way through the region. But the risk of severe weather is considerably lower.
Skies cleared Thursday night and Friday opens with partly cloudy skies and temperatures in the 70s. Plan for a mix of clouds and some sunshine Friday with temperatures climbing into the middle 80s. The cold front will be slowly working through the region, keeping the chance for scattered showers and a few thunderstorms in the forecast, mainly
Over the weekend, the weather is expected to be sunnier and drier, with temperatures in the mid-80s, but both the temperatures and the humidity could climb again beginning Monday
Thunderstorms soaked the region Thursday
Lightning crackled in the distance above the nation’s capital Thursday as the storm system pelting the D.C. area’s far reaches opened its maw around the District.
The weather is most severe beneath a jagged stretch of storms pointing northeast, with the heaviest rains falling on Rockville, Gaithersburg and the western portions of Columbia in Maryland. More thunderstorms are passing just north of Reston, Virginia. South of that, the gale-force winds and legal-tender-toned hail aren’t much closer than Charlottesville and the Shenandoah.
“In terms of the severe limits of this system, once we got past sunset, it really wasn’t able to hold together,” 7News First Alert Chief Meteorologist Veronica Johnson said. “It’s mostly about pockets of heavy rain at this point — and the lightning.”
Earlier severe thunderstorm watches covering Loudoun and Fauquier counties in Virginia, as well as Frederick County in Maryland, have been cancelled.
The NWS said in a statement Thursday evening that the storms were producing heavy rainfall, gusts of 60 miles per hour and “quarter-size hail.”
Parts of central and northeastern Maryland, as well as West Virgina’s eastern panhandle and northern Virginia, saw rainfall that could have flooded some areas — with two or three inches falling in an hour in some places. And a week after a confirmed tornado in Queen Anne’s County, 7News First Alert meteorologist Steve Rudin said, “an isolated spin-up cannot be ruled out, especially farther north and northeast.”
“The severe threat should begin winding down after about 9 or 10 p.m.,” he said.
Earlier, the NWS issued a severe thunderstorm watch, covering an anvil-shaped chain of cities and counties that reaches as far as the southwestern corners of New England and the West Virginia panhandle.
Fourteen Maryland counties, including Prince George’s, Montgomery, Anne Arundel, Howard, Calvert, Charles and St. Mary’s counties, are under the watch, as are 24 counties in Virginia — among them Fairfax County, Loudoun, Prince Wiliam, Fauquier, Stafford, Arlington, Culpeper and the independent cities of Alexandria, Fairfax, Falls Church, Manassas and Manassas Park.
The NWS watch is set to end at 10 p.m. But a few isolated storms could appear after midnight..
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Full forecast
THURSDAY EVENING: Areas of rain and storms. Temperatures in the 70s to 80s.
Winds: South 5-10 mph
THURSDAY NIGHT: Rain and storms ending with patchy fog. Lows between 65 and 70.
Winds: Light
FRIDAY: Partly cloudy with stray storms. Highs between 83 and 88.
Winds: South 5-10 mph
SATURDAY: Partly sunny with highs near 85.
Winds: Northeast 5-10 mph
SUNDAY: Partly cloudy with highs between 85 and 90.
Winds: Southwest 10-15 mph
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