alex in the weather center if we can pull out doppler radar as far as we can for a minute to give people an idea of the scope of the line of storms, it is impressive. it's not wide. look how long it is. stretches now from south central pennsylvania, fulton county, franklin county, south of virginia into north carolina. this is the one i talked about in townsville that was on the ground near the roanoke river, north of the raleigh durham. additional storms farther south. new tornado warning now in south central section of the north carolina. probably good 60 to 70 miles southwest of fayetteville. a lot of action. what lies beyond this we don't worry about. clearing skies. this line as the line itself moves to the east about 30 miles per hour. some of the storms are moving northeast at 60 miles per hour. all the tornadoes we have seen today run 45 miles per hour. so, as far as the watches and the warnings, they are

we don't expect any change in that. we have updated the map now to this area in red is all active tornado warning. the southern extent up to 5:15. and this area i believe the other area from the spotsylvania north in effect until 5:45 this afternoon. severe thunderstorm warning continue for a while longer for portion of montgomery county. northern loudoun county, up to frederick county and southwestern portion of washington county, maryland. farther east. they have storms on the shore we are dealing with. in our area we are seeing the storms that continue to propagate quickly in the south and the southwest of the washington metro area. there will be more developing here as the prime time of the day. what is interesting is we never broke into any sunshine. that is a good thing. two types of thunderstorms. one that develop on the ground is that tend to be stronger and more enger etic and once thelevate above the surface. if we had sunshine the storms would be numerous and worse. bells are ringing in the weather center. so in a minute someone

update and more tornado warnings here. this is the pattern we will be in until the entire line crosses the metro area. and eventually out across the chesapeake bay and the eastern shore. probably have a 45 minutes to hour and a half to go through. we will try to keep you as current as we can. to lay on the best boundaries. when we put the state roads up the way the computer system work they probably have names, different name than state route numbers. bear with us if we refer to them 621. locally you know where the area is as it comes out of the cooks down. this is the area for the best chance of the center of lyric ration here where we see the red and the green inbound there, outbound there. the only way the winds can be moving that fast and two different directions at one time is if the area is spinning. that is how we know we have the circulation. very few today are radar indicated only not t

most every one we heard south of us touched the ground. we are going to assume this is the same case. the shear is 69-mile-per-hour on this one. notice the shear storm velocity is moving at 64-mile-per-hour. it is really flying. that is just above the surface. but this gives you an idea as the wind with the storm spin as the air accelerates upward and it twists and bends. that is where you get circulation. you have seen the pictures before. the more they spin, the wider the spin, the wideer the vortex, the more powerful it is. some of these are beyond the garden variety tornadoes here. these are much more substantial. as we reported a while ago, the possibility of some unconfirmed report of three fatalities in the sussex county and waverly, virginia, wile ago from one of the same tornadoes that came through. we take it seriously. many parts are not affected at all by this.

harm's way. it's our job to give you the best information. chancellorsville, cookstown here. 610 to the north. highway 613. this is area at the moment we see the best chance on the right front leading edge of the system. where possibility tornadoes are on the ground. we don't have information for additional tornado to touch down as well as we have a lot of energy in the atmosphere poe cussed along the squall line. every time we see the squall line bow out like this, our attention perks up immediately. we know we have the potential of something coming in. ten minutes before the warning for fredericksburg the tornado warning came out, alex and ryan, two meteorologist in the weather center pointed it out and said it's just a matter of a few minutes before they issue a warning. we highlighted that notch and the bow area. western stafford county now. th i

that will get the teeth of the storm moving to the area. we can see we are getting in eye shot of the exended metro area -- extended metro area with gaithersburg, stafford and this is moving northeast. storm at 45 to 60 miles per hour. the line itself is moving east. it will take a few hours to move to the bay. we will see more and more storms spin up to cause us big problems. the temperatures, remember -- this is probably 4:00 when we came on. it was still in 40's west of town. what has happened is the warm air moved quickly to the west. now we have instability in the air. even though we didn't get sunshine. when we have the instability it will aid and abet the storms and they develop rapidly. a few thousand feet off the ground the winds are screaming overhead. 70 to 745-mile-per-hour winds. higher up the winds are

to kind of optimize the development of the storms. that is why they are stacked up. flow of air is so strong and steady that just one after the other te storms continue to bubble up. it will continue for another hour and a half, two hours before it gets to the chesapeake bay. martinsburg, it's stretching all along the east of the 95 corridor through north carolina. there are so many locations along the line where there are notches and the protrusion in the line that the local meteorologist in carolina are seeing what we see. they see the bow portion and the arc. people know what it is called. sometimes aesculin. quasi stationary -- i don't want to get into it. all kind of name. but this

dangerous formation of thunderstorms because they are so prone to developing the tornadoes. quick development at that. in the areas that we continue to advise until 5:45. stafford, west and southwest. everywhere this segment is going right now under a tornado warning. pay particularly close attention. please advise, ad mo in addition to get in basement area. head to the base. you won't have to stay there long. you will hear the winds come up, the rain and the thunder and the lightning and get better. steve, you want to act to the picture? steve: now is the time to take cover and seek shelter if you're in the areas near fredericksburg. that is where the strongest storms located now moving north and east. as doug mentioned you need to go to the basement. if you don't have a basement go to interior room with no windows. central closet or a bathroom. the smaller the room the better. don't stay in a great big room or living room or anywhere with glass.

you are watching at a gym in fredericksburg, you want to get away from the big areas with a lot of glass involved. these are very, very strong storms in terms of the potential for tornado. we have a lot going on, on the map. line here moving north and east. around d.c. around the capital beltway. for those with relative, family and friends who may come home now, we are at the peak of rush hour. now is the time to get home. if you have plans to the west on 66, leaving the city. you might just want to hold off for another couple of hours until the storms clear the metro. this is a severe thunderstorm warning with wind gust up to 60 miles per hour. further south we go, you have a cluster of a tornado warning that remain in effect until 5:45. this is 5:08. we have another half hour, 48 minutes, 42 min

the time this system or these particular warnings come to an end. even though the warnings may come to an end i suspect we will see many, many her warnings issued moving through the next few hours or so. head to wjla.com. we will keep you updated on wjla.com. newschannel8. show you what is going on in addition to the warnings, we have a lot of flash flood watches. five-day outlook watches in effect for -- we have the flood watches in effect. jefferson and berkeley county, loudoun and fauquier to a flash flood warning. keep an eye on that moving through the coming hours. live doppler radar. fredericksburg under tornado warning until 5:45. heaviest active toy the west of you. this is when you need to seek shelter in stafford or southern maryland. this will move your way. i suspect blind right here where the divider line for the warning these will continue to extend as

hour, hour and a half. moving north and east. the winds and the gusty winds. bright out there. the sun will set five till 6:00. that will work to our advantage in terms of seeing the storm. but if you are out and about or no one in stafford. this is i-95. this is when you seek shelter. head to basement or interior closet or bathroom. those are the areas to go to seek shelter from the storm. widen it out. we not the only ones dealing with the severe weather. all the area in yllow from the pennsylvania border through the southern maryland, through virginia. north carolina. even in south carolina. under the tornado watches. we have three together. they expire at different time. our tornado watch expires at 11:00 tonight. a line of storms we are concerned about. strongest activity well south

this is fredericksburg storm. richmond, another storm to cause significant damage. heading south to the virginia/north carolina border another tornado warning. you can count them. one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight right now tornado warnings out there stretching from fredericksburg to south of raleigh. that is something to watch closely on abc7. once again around the capital beltway we are looking at the conditions that are not horrible around the beltway. at least we look at light rain. it will change quickly. we are live at 5:11. you can see the track moving north and east. ever so slightly. those of you in fauquier, fairfax look for the stronger storms to move overhead to montgomery county. your skies will darken. you will look for the potential for heavy rain. i would not be surprised if we see additional thunderstorm warning

issued in the next couple of hours or so. the future cast is in line and doing a good job tar get aing where the storms are located. this is what we forecast at if 5 centre -- 5:00 hour. it has come true. we have another two hours to go by the time it will move toward north and east. behind it look for clearing. between now and 7:00 or 8:00 we have a tornado watch in effect. the tornado warning. then we will see the additional warnings issued heading through overnight hours and it will begin to improve through the overnight. we have it again. a wider view. everything in yellow. the further west you go. for those in garrett, algany or washington county or part of west virginia, not a problem right now. not expected to be a problem because all this will move off toward the east. it will head closer toward the fredericksburg area.

take cover. fredericksburg. you are looking at a time to take cover. said it again and say it over and over. head to a basement or a closet. head to area with no windows that is small. if you are not in an area to do that seek shelter in a corner and put yourself between sofa or something with padding but this is a storm that has potential, potential to cause damage. back to doug hill. he has more. doug: but first, horace holmes has more on the deadly tornado in virginia. what are you finding out? horace: you can tell just how powerful storm is by where it has been and the damage it has left behind. we have video. let's go to it now from waverly, virginia. waverly is in suffolks county. this was powerful. look at the da

through. this is a laundromat blown away right there. sussex county, the national weather service now confirming that there with three deaths in sussex county. you can see the storm caused a lot of damage as it blew through. one of the tornadoes or possible tornadoes that came through. not confirmed at this point. the damage is extensive. unfortunately this was a deadly touchdown. back to you. doug: thank you. let's get you up to date. look at the doppler radar to give you detail of what is happening. first to give you update on the watches and the warnings in the area now. what we have across the region until 11:00 tonight is a tornado watch. that means the tornadoes are possible. in the areas in red it has been upgraded to warning because we is a tornado on the ground or a good indication of tornado on the ground. so for the next hour or two we are under the influence of

spin. in certain areas they are prone to produce tornadoes. this is a strong area from fauquier county to south and westward to stafford and spotsylvania county. remaining under tornado warning. this is the area we are watching closely. this area through ruby is a hot spot. there are other segments of the lesser intensity to the south. you can drop south to north carolina. we will pick up more severe thunderstorms with the possibility of start rotating to cause tornadoes. to the north, even though they are not tornadic they are severe with the high winds. wind gusts up to 50 miles per hour. with torrential rain. doppler radar we can look given side the storm. that is what makes it so special. we are looking live in the storm causing the biggest problems now in the tornado area. you can see the legend of the

30,000 feet. work this way and show the active part of the storm peaking out over 30,000 feet. that tells us something important. first, the airplanes aren't flying over the storm because of how dangerous it is. and the depth of the circulation and the warm air rising. we have a strong storm center at the bottom level of the storm closer to the surface we see spinning. when you get a storm in the situation, the air rises and spinning and turning backwards. spinning it all and works it to the ground level. the higher the concentration goes the more likely it is a tornado and significant tornado. we are watching that closely as the line of the severe weather we believe is producing a tornado continues to make a run up to the northeast at 45 miles per hour. it's well west of the stafford. heaviest portion is about to get to southeastern section of the fauquier

north for gainesville. >> i'm adding in front of the wall they expanded to fredericksburg until 6:00. 55 miles per hour moving northeast. doug: to have a tornado moving that fast is something we only see if an outer band of decaying tropical storm. this is unusual on something this big moving that fast. get you up to date. this is important information if you are just joining us. look at the towns and the advisories here. these are the times we think the tornadic thunderstorm with a possible tornado embedded will arrive in manassas at 5:21. stafford at 5:31. reston at 5:48. gaithersburg at 6:12. 6:19 in mount vernon. we have no idea if the storm will still be producing tornado at that point. but this is the range. stafford, 5:31. manassas, reston, gaithersburg as the line is moving to the east at

the storm producing the tornado moving northeast at 55 miles per hour. that motion in the lower level of the atmosphere will help accentuate the wind speed and the wind gust to make it more likely it is a real tornado actually making ground contact. we're have seen a number farther south on the line that hit the ground across virginia and an appamadox county, cumberland county and sussex county. this is the area right now as the storm comes. take shelter immediately. in the basement or the interior room. if you do not have a basement, stay away from the windows and go to interior room with no windows. if need be, take pillows from the bed, sofa cushions, anything for shelter. you don't to stay there forever but stay there until the warning expir

now. 5:45. tornado warning in effect as the storm itself producing the tornado is moving at 55 miles per hour. you can't see it because it's encased in rain. all indication is the hail is gone which is a good sign. but the intense rainfall and circulation around the possible tornado is a real concern. if you stay on the image, look to see the outline. this is the area we think is it going to travel through in the next 45 minutes to 50 minutes until it's out of the area. focus now on the stafford. the interstate 81 area. manually move around to get whatever information we can. it's west of spotsylvania. northwest of spotsylvania. probably centered in the southeast corner of fauquier county. that is going to c

it's a pretty good speed at which it is moving. a lot of times with the systems, because of the height of the radar beam, you are kind of cutting through the storm at a certain level. depending how much action there is, how much hail and the level of the hail, you will get success i sweep and a different portrayal. one thing that is consistent is a bowing feature. this is the area of the tornadic winds moving northeast at 55 miles per hour. steve? steve: update on the tornado warning for southeastern prince william county, stafford county including city of fredericksburg and southeastern culpeper and northeastern spotsylvania county. this is until 6:00 this everything. areas that are affected. stafford, dale city, triangle, garrisonville, stones corner, brookfield. all the area under the newest tornado warning until 6:00 this evening. doug, separate in and

show us where that is. of course, there is a line of tornado warning up and down -- doug: can we go back an image, al, before here? give you a second to get to the computer. i want to show you the number of the tornado warnings in effect now along the lines. thanks. we have several active tornado warnings. several counties south of raleigh. the virginia-north carolina border area. the area that steve told you about, the area we told you about are awfully close to the populated areas. populated areas on a wednesday afternoon at 5:21. significant number of people on the road. traveling the interstate. people that went across 64 are dealing with this right now coming out of the richmond area, headed to charlottesville. the major interstates in our area will deal with it shortly. southbound now in fayetteville. i mentioned fayetteville a while ago. that is where a large possible tornado on the ground. back to the live doppler radar and continues to monitor the strength and the height of the

we are peaking out of the precipitation area over 30,000 feet. that is less than six miles in theiary. a dynamic storm. look what happens here when you get to the lower elevations below 3,000 feet. this is the achetive part of the storm -- active part of the storm where the notable circulation showing up, the actual tornado itself. pretty intense the entire line. we are back to the regular doppler mode. zoom in. with the area of shower east of the tornadic area. port royal and the areas to the harry nice bridge getting rain. neigh will get the heavy downpours moving in there. it will take a while. this storm is moving this way. west of 35 miles per hour. the tornado on the ground is moving east at 55 miles per hour. so that will produce wind damage outside of any tornadic spinning. it will produce its own wind damage. there is

with this. we don't have indication of hail in the storm. we see the torrential rains moving quickly. what happens when the rain falls and we have the strong winds directly overhead, the motion of the heavy rain will pull and mix the strong winds from a few thousand feet off the ground down to ground level. when that happens it is called the straight line winds. where it blows things over in a straight line. you can see the difference in a tornado when it's spun and shredded and twisted. that is the damage we experience several times this afternoon along the line to north carolina. with a number of actual discreet thunderstorms. the storm that came through sussex, that area, the one with the three fatalities that horace holmes told us about is working to delaware. quiet east of town now. showers across waldorf and the area to la plata and across the potomac river. you come back to virginia. you get back along i-95 and point west. that is where the heavy action is now as it pushes up. just to the right is the district. here we are at

we said at 6:00 the heaviest line should move in the district. that should be right. maybe a couple of minutes after 6:00. there is the leading edge. we will update the times here as we are able to use the technology and the doppler radar to give you an idea when the worst part of the storm will move in different areas. there is no guaranteeing there will be tornadic circulation. it is possible to stay on the ground for many, many more miles or it could pull up. we just deal with the garden variety severe storm. but there you see the line. reston at 5:44. we will make it later. 6:26 in alexandria. the line will propagate to the east/orth east to baltimore metro area. it will come to an end but not there yet. 6:15 for the district. less than an hour. steve, we will get with you in a second but i have been told to talk to horace holmes for an update from the deadly tornado in sussex county, virginia. horace: we have more dramatic video and

county. waverly is the town where the storm blew through an hour ago. you can see how powerful the storm was. laundromat was blown away. debris everywhere. so much so they had to close route 460 and route 40 because debris was everywhere. we are sound from a gentleman caught in the storm and watched as it blew through. he told the reporter there unfortunately one of his friends was caught in the house and that is one of the three fatalities. listen to him now. >> completely brick. tore the brick down. that is my unclal's trailer. >> behind it there? >> yes. >> that is where it was, correct? >> yes. >> yellow house. >> another double wide that is not completely even there. you never known it was there. took it up and clean across the highway. >> have you seen this

"twister," can movie maybe. >> unfortunately, frightening scene in waverly. sussex county the storm blowing through causing damage an hour ago. let's go back to steve rudin. steve? steve: a powerful storm. timing of the storm could not be any worse. it coincides with the busy rush hour commute across the d.c. metro around the capital beltway. there is the capital beltway. for those of you mo are watching us in college park near the gaylord resort and the national harbor or old town alexandria or northwest d.c., woodly park west end, you are looking at the light showers now. main storm, the strong line of storms is on our way. on it way over the next half hour to 45 minutes. look at the spread of the temperatures. 64 at reagan national airport. andrews at 64.

30 mills. look at 46 in leesburg. same in frederick. 51 in hagerstown. luray at 60. stanton at 63. plenty of warm air. but it is clashing with the cooler, colder air. this is the time to seek shelter and find a basement or an interior room such as a closet or a bathroom. if you don't have a basement. you want to stay away from windows. and the shelter until the warning expires. i will expire at 6:00. another at 6:15. a busy time for traffic but a lot of folks at this point head to the subway and the metro. at this time probably hold off on doing that right now. maybe wait until 7:00 or 7:00. once the storm system moves out of here. if you are watching at a gym and you are in the warned areas with the tornado warng

of glass on the walls. this is the time you need to get off your elliptical glider. i know you don't want to mess with the routine. skies are darkening quickly. the storms are very strong. not only are you looking at the tornado warnings across our area but the red boxes, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. ten tornado warnings right now stretching along this line of the very, very strong storms. the area in yellow will include the washington metro area down south through virginia, through north carolina. through south carolina under tornado watch. our tornado watch expires at 11:00. i want to give you good news. the tornado watch will cancel out a little bit before 11:00. head closer for you now. once again the capital beltway. if you are near tysons, tysons gal ryia or the mow -- galleria and the mosaic in fairfax.

stronger storms move your way. southern maryland is dry. that will change in the next two hours or so. it will head to a little closer, i believe. show you what is going on in terms of the future cast. this is really good. holding together the strong line of the storms. this is the computer simulation. by 7:30 tonight we expect most of the storms to slowly move east. eventually toward dellmarva. behind it is when we expect the conditions to improve around here. improve dramatically overnight and through the day tomorrow. it will look a whole lot better. 12 hours from now. it will look better around here in another couple of hours. once we get the strongest storms out of here. then we look for the windier conditions and the cooler conditions across the area. i want to show you -- there we go. show you again what we have in terms of the severe thunderstorm watch. tornado watch. the area in yellow. we have it now. of co

this is a brand new warning. i hear the bells ringing in the weather center. this includes the district. montgomery county, fairfax, arlington, alexandria. part of prince george's county. and they have taken down the severe thunderstorm warning for northern montgomery county to frederick county. the strongest of the storms in terms of the severe thunderstorm activity. if you are wondering or holding off, taking off a few minutes to go home or to head somewhere now is the time to take a break. head back to doug hill. doug: you don't have to leave. i want to pass along, it hasn't come out on paper yet but we saw online severe thunderstorm warning just issued for the district and the whole metropolitan area until 6:15. severe storm developing along 66. moving northeast at 50 miles per hour. so the entire metro area now under severe thunderstorm warning until 6:15. that is 45

we still describe the tornado warning in effect as well. this is the most active part of the stormy location to the south. step off and get the analog -- or the digital world, analog stuff is sometimes the best still. this is not showing up totally on the map. give you jurisdictions under this severe thunderstorm warning until 6:15. if you live in the district, northwestern charles county. prince george's county. southeastern montgomery county. fairfax county. southeastern prince william county. northeastern stafford. cities of fairfax, falls church, alexandria. and arlington county all under severe thunderstorm warning. so, this is really interesting. when you see the line if you take a picture and say hey, what is happening with this, you know automatically it's severe and the convolution and the notches. we are getting a lot of big storms. the worst to come here and moving on target over the next 45 minutes to an hour. steve will get the update.

meanwhile, kevin lewis is outen the road right now. i do not envy him. he is on 395. what do you see out the windshield? it doesn't look good buddy. kevin: hey, doug. yeah. we have been on 795. the skies are ominous. the rain coming down. the traffic volume is heavy. around 30 minutes ago i got an alert on my iphone to tell me about the tornado warning in the immediate area. the roadway sign saying we are 20 miles from fredericksburg. southbound lan of i-95. we are coming to you, if we see anything more treacherous than this right now. back to

steve: back now at the stormwatch7 weather team on duty. this fakes to us fairfax, virginia, where a newly issued severe thunderstorm warning in effect. the temperature is 63 degrees. the winds are out of the east/southeast at 13 miles per hour. once the storm moves through, the winds will increase dramatically. wind gust up to 60 miles per hour. i want to show you once again the latest areas under the warning. the areas in orange. if we get to take it full so everyone could see it at home clearly. if you expand my view. this includes southern montgomery county, fairfax county, arlington, alexandria, the district, also include prince george's county and northern portion of charles county. this is for the severe thunderstorm warning until 6:15. a lot of folks are getting off of work and hearing about the storm. they have heard about the storm. this is the time that will have the biggest impact for those of you who are insi

the capital beltway. for that matter the areas shaded in orange. once again until 6:15. i suspect this will eventually expand further as we move through the next hour or so to eventually include anne arundel county, part of calvert county and the cell slowly moves toward the north and the east. of course we have the areas in red. that is the tornado warning that has been going on for quite some sometime. parts of the tornado warning to the south,ers pyre at 6:00. another section expires 6:15 for prince william county. if you find yourself in the area with the tornado warning, now is the time to seek shelter. doppler indicated tornado at this time we are still having the potential, we still have the potential i should say for these to materialize. we have seen that happen time and time again. this afternoon and during the everything hours. i do want to also clarify areas in yellow that include howard county and frederick county. king george and charles, southern charles county. those are the areas that are

area, you do have the potential for the stronger storms. potential for tornadoes across the area. another view from the weather bug this is again from fairfax. you can see how conditions rapidly, rammedly deteriorating. you can hardly see anything at there at all now. hopefully, hopefully in the next half hour to 45 minutes, the areas will get better. doug? doug: toss it? steve: i don't want to break it. doug: here is the deal. give you updates. thanks, steve. update the conditions around the area. we have had wind gusts of up to 48 miles per hour in manassas with an intense storm. hail beginning. ground hill 45 miles per hour. 42 in manassas at another location. 41-mile-per-hour gusts in purcellville. we have been longing when steve was on here, alex liggitt andry looking at the doppler radar closely. we no longer see defined center of ci

that is good news. it doesn't mean it is not there or still a remnant of a tornado. but we if not see anything in all the different modalities of the doppler radar we are checking we don't see indication of center of circulation. we see violent storms. it is a long area. in this area of the prince william county we are under tornado warning to extend until 6:00 p.m. north of that area, the whole metro washington area now under severe thunderstorm warning until 6:00 p.m. we have this wiggly line here which gives us an idea. we have severe weather. torrential rain. interestingly very little lightning detected on the lightning detection system. every now and then we get indication of a pocket of hail. mostly what we have heavy rain dropping strong winds gusts, 40 to 50 miles per hour to the surface. little farther south we continue to have this indication that tornadoes will still develop. they are developing farther south in virginia. and in north

what you are looking at now is indication of when the leading edge of the squall line if you want, when it will hit people in certain areas like annandale. gaithersburg, district at 6:01. 6:21, across the river in oxon hill and national harbor. take 6:32 to get to columbia area. the bowed out section with the heaviest wind gust will advance to this direction toward the metro area. we continue to monitor the front edge here to see if we see protrusion or notches to produce tornado. the entire weather pattern has the unfortunate history of producing a fatal tornado in waveerly, virginia, damaging tornadoes across south side virginia and the areas in the north carolina as well in the afternoon. many of those warnings continue in effect. now we are going to reboot here to take an

you with a couple more towns we can include here as we continue to constantly update the timing of the leading edge of the storm now which is just about to vienna. it's almost there. past reston. it will continue to move northwest or the northeast at a pretty good clip. time check of annandale at 5:37. bailey's crossroads at 5:36. gaithersburg at 5:55. just before 6:00 p.m. now in the district. then in the chillum area in prince george's county east of district at 6:04. richard reeve is busy to give us an idea what is happening outside. where are you? what are you looking at? richard: we are in rockville off of 270 in a parking lot here. i have to tell you, the skies are really dark. i feel like we have gone from day to night. see up in the sky here. look at the clouds. how fast-moving they are. how dark they are. we are going to go point south over here for a

the storm is heading our way. i talked to my spouse who said in winchester it was lightening and thundering and now the sun is out. a different picture here. we are going to wheel around one more time. now we get lightning strikes, folks. wheel around here to see this is 270 right here. traffic is moving along fine. the problem is with this weather rehave had bands. when we first set out this afternoon we had heavy downpours on the g.w. parkway. then it literally came to a halt. now the rain is starting again. give you another view of the sky. look at this. it looks like nighttime already. that is how dark it is here. the storm is getting stronger in this area. live in rockville, richard reeve, abc7 news. doug: thank, if theup date you point out about the clouds and at the surface winds are 15 to 25 miles per hour. we have had higher gu

at the cloud cover, 12 to 1,500 feet i have a the ground the winds are 60 to 70 earn many. the heavy rain comes in. torrential downpour. it looks to me that the area of the heavy rain is wider. remember we look at it before. i was a skinny line. it's wider now. a lot of heavy rain. it will mix winds down to the surface. that is how we get strong winds gust when the heavy rain starts up. rich saw a lightning strike. that is one of few we have. we have noticed able sense of any -- noticedded absence over any hail. we are mostly dealing with the lightning. lot of torrential rain and strong wind gusts pushing east. at a good clip. now at 30, 35 miles per hour from west to east. while individual segments and organized cells are shooting northeast at 55 miles per hour. that combined motion indicate the high potential for strong winds getting on the

on the leading edge of the line is what we look for, indication of a spinning in the atmosphere. we showed you the colors before if you join us. we went inside a storm and we saw a red and green. red is the air pushing away from the radar transmitter and the green is the air moving toward it. the only way the air can be moving away and toward the transmitter at the same time is for it to be spinning. we measure that potential using the term called "shear" because it moves two ways at the same time. to give us andcation of the shear and how strong possible rotation could be. that is what we have now. we have a little rotation once again now. south of vienna on the back edge of the heaviest line. it's not impossible to have a rotation there as well. heavy rain moving across i-95. kevin lewis on i-95. getting the ratest for us. what do you see -- getting the latest for us. what do you see?

kevin: heavy rain down i-95. we are ten to 15 miles out of fredericksburg in the southbound lanes. this is a camera behind the vehicle. we saw lightning in the sky. rain is picking up in the intensity. you can see the roadway getting pelted with the heavy rainfall. we drive down i-95. the traffic conditions are heavy. around 30 to 35 miles per hour. a lot of brake lights ahead of us. rain with the high intensity. lightning is picking up frequently. toss it back to you in the studio. see any more severe conditions. steve: thank you. kevin lewis reporting live on mobiletrak7. if you live in the district or arlington or alexandria or bethesda. now is the time that you need to keep a close eye to the sky as stronger storms are now moving across the area.

the entire area you see now is under severe thunderstorm warning. for the next half hour. we are going to see probably continue, maybe longer than that. further east you go. we will head to a little closer. if you watching us around mclean or tysons corner. if you know of anyone around 795 corridor or i -- around the 95 corridor or 4595. to the western edge of the capital beltway. those are the areas seeing the heaviest of the rain right now. we will head in closer. i don't know if alison is there or not and can guide us through to show where the heavy rain is now. across the immediate metro inside the beltway it is beginning to move to the region. central d.c., falls church and vienna. on the back edge. oakton it will clear out quickly. those around the fairfax circle the skies will clear. not in terms of the cloud cover but the rain should become less of a problem. that is over here for the fairfax circle. you can

beginning to develop around fairfax station area. head closer to you now. this area here, this is the area to see heaviest rain. if you are watching from the city around west end and dupont circle. woodly park, cleveland park, van ness to chevy chase, upper wisconsin avenue near friendship heights. this is the time you need to seek the shelter or take cover because we are looking at the stronger storms moving our way. right here is the capital beltway. you can see 495 here. right now heavy rain for another ten minutes or so. we have a live shot from tyson's corner. that is what you have here. you can see the heavy rain. the wind gusts up to 60 miles per hour. that is where a severe thunderstorm

head in closer and this is difficult to see. street name area. there is no rain for reagan national airport but it will change in 15 to 20 minutes. i assume we have numerous ground stop for reagan international. expect delays. expect delays through the everything hour. 66. keep in mind the traffic is going west now. moving through the next hour as you head to the fairfax area. this is where we expect the strongest of the storm. heaviest rain. gusty, gusty winds. but right now it's just beginning to move

area. shift it over further east for you now. for those in the direction or the trinidad area. you are looking at showers developing. but this is the just the beginning. capitol hill and the downtown d.c. 16th street here. silver spring here. friendship heights. we move in the a.u. park area you are just on the edge of the lighter rain. further east you go to college park and northeast d.c. you are not seeing a lot. not right now. but i promise you by the 6:00 hour, 6:15. this storm is cranking up really fast. if you cut over to the weather graphics to see what is on there.

thunderstorm warning with baltimore and howard county to montgomery county, fairfax. district. arlington, alexandria, prince george's. all the areas that are shaded in orange would be severe thunderstorm warning. with the gusty winds and the heavy downpours. under that we have the flood watches and the flood warning because of the heavy rain that the storms are producing. the areas you see are this red, including the stafford county, part of prince william county. that is a tornado warning set to expire in 13 minutes. we have not had any report of any locks right now. it's doppler radar indicated at this time. however, most of the area, the area shaded in yellow that includes the area underneath the orange and the red under that tornado watch. now until 11:00. i expect the tornado watch will come down earlier than that. don't you think? doug: the way it is moving if the line is at the current speed yeah. i think 8:30 to 9:00 we should be out of the woods. this

expanded. north to baltimore and prince george's county. that has been included now in the severe thunderstorm warning. that will continue to affect 6:15 if not longer. tornado warning for a few minutes longer over prince william county and more south. this is through north carolina. see the red areas? those are the areas that are to our area with the active tornado warning. once we get behind the system it calms down quickly behind the strong cold fronts which will pass through tonight and the end severe weather threat tonight. scattered showers in the unstable air. up close and personal. we still do not see the significant indication of any rotation. we have a bowing

cloud level to ground. you can see the line moving in the metro area before i step in for steve. just heard a crack of thunder outside the studio in rosslyn. so there a little lightning thunder and there is hail picking up. district with steady area of the light rain. now coming in across arlington county about to cross potomac river to northwest washington. we are in an area of hev vain before you know it. 5:51 for montgomery county. 5:56 in district. 6:03 in chillum. 6:08 in montgomery county. prince george's county is when the leading edge will find its way to your area. moving west to east at 35 miles per hour. abc7's kimberly suiters on duty outside our studios in rosslyn. heavy rain, lightning. give us an update. kimberly: doug, pretty dece

thunder. not heavy rain yet. no heavy coat needed. it's still quite warm. the temperature on my phone i checked is 62 degrees. awfully warm for a february everything. i want to tell you, doug you know this. i covered tornadoes in tornado alley in oklahoma and texas and kansas for eight and a half years. when i woke up this morning i said i don't think it's warm enough to produce a tornado. right now the conditions do feel warmer. much warmer than you would expect. they feel muggy. which can accompany a severe storm, tornadic occasion. right now though, it is relatively quiet except for the dark skies. i don't know if you can see the flashes of the lightning. it's not all that close. just a few rain drops. actually the rain is starting to come down a little more heavily now. we will watch the conditions closely here in rosslyn. for now i will toss it to my colleague richard reeve in rockville. what are you seeing up

richard: yeah, the rain is he he -- is really coming down. you can see the parking lot is getting slammed. getting hammered. they lost power for a while in the parking lot. the lights are back on now. but you can see the rain coming down, coming down in sheets now. we are getting lightning and thunder strikes. 270 now, a lot of people trying to get through the storms. [audio interruption] doug: rich, thank you. stake a break and get back inside the truck. torrential downpours in the rockville area to gaithersburg. as the line of the storms continues to move at a strong clip to north and east. we are watching a new area. farther south. south of fredericksburg. this is an area in virginia. about 40 miles south of fredericksburg. we are monitoring it closely. in this area, possible tornado moving northeast. severe thunderstorm with the

moving northeast. this looks like it will take a while. hour or so to get close to the immediate viewing area. there are more of the tornadic activity developing from portion of the southwestern pennsylvania to north carolina to south carolina border. it is moving this way. we noticed in the weather center there are other areas southwest of richmond showing the sign of the rotation. there is a lot of potential still to go. we should tell you until 6:45 when the severe thunderstorm warning in the area will last that long from the line.

this stretches from pennsylvania south. wait a minute to pull back to show a bigger version. you can see the flash of the red here. tornado warnings popping up in virginia. they had them earlier today as well. this is moving east. this region in yellow is under watch. those under the warning are under 45 at a clip. we have the other area we show as a severe thunderstorm warning. it is severe for hundred of miles as it will continue to move east. side note. you have the storms that if you have the aircraft, commercial aircraft traveling from east to west, it's going to slow things down. they have to

stop in places here because these storms tops of the clouds are so high and the active weather extends so high, six miles or higher in the atmosphere. it's impossible to get over the top of it. there will be discorruptions and let alone the traffic. before long the i-95 corridor looks to be covered from north carolina through our area. with heavy thunderstorms. they will move east. we will get to a point later tonight where the line itself is east of the metro and will be east of the bay. this is over my shoulder, split screen. magic. i won't put my hand that far. it goes away. lightning flashes are starting to increase. that is not surprising. all day we showed you the temperatures in the mid-40's in western suburbs. mid-60's d.c. and east. the sun is going down but the air is warmer here. so that is a relative term. late february, the mid-60's late in afternoon, that is warm. we have plenty of the ene

atmosphere realized now. as the line of the storms moves eastward. it will appear that the line of the storms the rain, the lightning and getting more intense now than it has been. we are not seeing locally at the moment are the tornado warnings. we have more now northwest of the richmond metro. continuing to track north and east. we will keep a close eye on those. as far as the doppler radar, we are seeing the tops. we have one down there to 60,000 feet. think about that. 60,000 feet. only military and certain military jets go that high. these are the enormous storms along the line. we will continue to monitor that. under enormous cloud canopy to the surface the most violent weather, strongest wind and the intense rain and the possibility of tornadoes. steve rudin entered the auditorium. what do you have? steve: take the picture full on the corner of the screen. this is from the roof in rosslyn.

the thunder across the area. the sky is a glow. if you look closely you can see the washington monument i believe. is that the washington monument? barely make it out. you can see now that the sun set. it's set officially at 5:55. keep in mind it takes 15 to 20 minutes to get completely dark outside. the cloud cover, the storms so intense that it looks like the middle of the night out there with the exception of the lightning and a lot of lightning. is the time you need to be inside. if you are debating about whether to go catch that metro bus. if you are saying to yourself i need to pick the kids up from dance class or after-school activity, have the kids hold tight at the school. they are safe where they are. wait until the storm clear the area. severe thunderstorm warning, not a tornado warning for the d.c. metro. but we still are looking at th

continue for the metro area. for those who have family and friends in downtown richmond, richmond is under tornado warning. that means the downtown richmond to the south of us under tornado warning. not like that for us. take it wide. i will step in the picture to show what is going on with the doppler radar. we are looking at the stronger storms beginning to move in the district. upper northwest d.c. if you are familiar with the area near american university. up to friendship heights and then, of course, silver spring up here. bethesda and then potomac. well north and west. heaviest rain is now beginning to fall and will continue to fall as we move through the next half hour to 45 minutes. with the heaviest rain around bethesda or west motherland hills. all of this is moving in the district. 29

georgetown around there and west end. there is a huge development, outdoor development out there. national cathedral over here. heading south to georgetown this is the time you need to definitely take cover. bedroit park and northwest d.c. not there yet but give it another five or signature minutes. that is it. five to eight minutes. you will see the stronger storms overhead. southeast d.c. around anacostia. the storm is just on your backdoorstep. you can see here is the anacostia. compare it to here to the west of you. that is where we look at the stronger storms. for those in rosslyn near reagan national airport. oldtown alexandria. oxon hill, maryland. these are the areas that will see prolific lightning and heavy rain. we have flood watches and the warnings. posted for a good chunk of the area. this here is the national harbor.

gaylord resort. they are building a casino off the expressway. this is that location here. head due west. heaviest rain around the delray and potomac yard. this is the time that you need to stay where you are. stay in place. not go out. it's very strong. if you consider how high an airplane flies when it is cruising. around 38 to 40,000 feet, we have the cloud tops here upward of 50,000 feet. doug hill has new information. doug: we have a all right of hail in south arlington. this buttress what i mentioned the storm are getting stronger where you had wa

report of hail and lightning and no shortage of the torrential rain. we are in the weather center to monitor doppler radar for any sign of the tornadoes and the metro area. steve: the warmer air, today the temperature, at one point was 65, 66 degrees at reagan national airport. doug: yeah. steve: not far to the west we had the temperatures on the 40's. for leesburg. now we are talking apt -- you can point this out. doug: we were talking about the storm. looking locally over the metro area. steve talked about was 60,000 feet in the air. that is amazing as far as the cloud tops. no way to fly over this. this is enormous powerful thunderstorm. that is why we have hail and all kind of action. look outside at what is happening. it is coming down in buckets. that is going to