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

region. this is really phenomenal downpours and something that you just don't see. thunderstorms that big on the 24th of february. around here. just doesn't happen. a look at the doppler radar. it's a wider area now of the torrential rain. rain is getting heavier and the storms more severe heading east. we don't have locally an indication of a tornado. there is a tornado for downtown richmond. another system west of richmond to work its way closer to the southern suburbs tonight. kimberly suiters is back outside. i don't think it's just a few raindrops anymore. kimberly: you are right. you can see the umbrellas blown inside out. the wind is very strong. the rain coming down in buckets and sheets across the road. still very heavy. lightning. this is the most severe wind and rain we have s

ten minutes. more people walking by with the umbrellas. the wind just overcoming those umbrellas. the lightning is prolific. you definitely want to take cover. stay inside. this is not safe to be out in. we are under cover in a safe position here. but there are a lot of people out and about in downtown rosslyn braving the wind and the rain and the lightning. as you know can be terribly dangerous. doug: thanks for that. stay safe. we will continue to update the storm. now the updated story just in that the severe warnings have been pushed eastward now to include northern portion of calvert county, northern charles, anne arundel county. all the way up to hartford county, maryland. severe thunderstorms. farther south we have a tornado warning in effect. newest one. that is close to king george's county. we monitor it closely. what will happen in the next hour or two as the line of the severe weather moves east and we have individual

any producing tornadoes. as that happens the threat will eventually go farther south and the east of the metro area. so, the northern neck, king george and the northern neck proper to southern maryland. they will become the target for the additional tornadic thunderstorm to develop. that is a good thing. it won't linger over one area too much longer as it moves east. doppler radar, make moves here. nasty line from pennsylvania to farther south and virginia. every now and then along the segment we will see some indication of some rotation, some notches developing. the radar picture. it will make us go and investigate. that investigation from the national weather service when they are doing it found tornado now that is about 35 to 40 miles south of king george county. moving quickly. no shortage over the storms. we are looking farther south in the area here. we will draw a line here to show yo

20, 30 minutes as they continue to move. the storm producing the tornado. we have had no grounder if kay ocean of the tornadicly indicated. it looks as though the city of fredericksburg at 6:05. any minute now. it looks. then fair view beach, dogriand st. charles in charles county, maryland and leonardtown in st. mary's county 7:29. it will take another hour and a half to make its way across the potomac to southern maryland. as it moves eastward, conditions will improve west. two motions to deal with. 35 miles per hour. individual thunderstorms moving north inortheast. 50 to 55 and 60 miles per hour. that lateral motion will guarantee in the heaviest downpour to bring stronger winds down from overhead to the

what is tough to deal with in the rainy environment with the low visibility if we start to have a spin-up where we have a tornado start spinning. we don't have that in the metro area. we have torrential rain with the increasing lightning. we expect the conditions to continue over the next hour, hour and a half as the whole line moves to the areas that have been pretty warm in the afternoon. in the mid-60's in many areas. especially along and east of i-95. with the warmth in the atmosphere. a little different combination in the atmosphere going here. the areas east of town are actually probably going to have increasing chances for more severe weather to develop. zoom in now. we are looking at bethesda. we are looking at the berwyn. starting to see there some indication now we have little bit of motion trying to develop in the atmosphere. we will watch it closely. it's not surprising in this pattern, this line that every now and then one of the storms will show indication that it is tryi

here. instead of dropping rain and a lightning bolt it may spin. we will watch it closely. we head through the next hour or so here. a lot of ground to cover with the storms. remember, this all started out early this morning. western north carolina. part of the mountains of south carolina. when the storm line started moving. intensified all day long. the only thing to tell you if had we been warmer and sunny it would have been worse than it is now. we are getting a lucky break especially in areas that were chilly side all day. the line that continues to move. matter of time before the area. most of the region you are under severe thunderstorm warning. that will continue until 6:45. severe thunderstorm by the definition. heavy rain. wind gusts at 58 miles per hour or higher. possibility of the hail. that is what we are hearing. we just reported steve rudin in area near south arlington that we had possibility of hail. i'll walk this way. if i walk that w

disappear. i picked the wrong way. >> steve: that is okay. we are all looking at the groundstops right now at reagan national airport, dulles, b.w.i., philadelphia, to new york. if you are expecting anyone by air travel as we move through the next hour or two, expect significant delays. get a check in rockville. richard reeve joining us live. hopefully you are inside protected from the lightning and the rain. we are fine. look at the lamp. you can see how severe the weather is. cloth clinging to the tree here. it is hanging on for dear life. that is the wind speed we have in this area.

the sidewalk. we are seeing this. coming down on the roofs and coming down on the sidewalk. a lot of heavy rain and lightning and thunder. people are going home to try to get home in inclement conditions. not the best night in the car trying to get home. conditions here are severe. back to you. steve: richard reeve reporting live from rockville, maryland. the rain continues to fall at a heavy rate. we should note we talk about the severe thunderstorm warning in the last couple of hours now. now we look at the flood warning. flood warning has been posted for the district. montgomery county through the everything hours. look at the weather bug network. germantown at 53 degrees. more impressive is a wind gust of miles per hour. this is german town on the weather bug network. 50 miles per hour

manassas, rockville and clarke. -- and clarksburg. the temperatures are falling. rain and lightning falls around the potomac yard around alexandria. there is where abc7's jeff goldberg is live. jeff: we have not experienced wind but the rain has fallen. started 15, 20 minutes ago. it has come down and it continues to come down hard. it's lightened up a tad in the last minute or two. i don't know if we track it that closely but it feels that way. taking a look at traffic. southbound on jefferson davis highway. look at the sky. we can see flashing of the lightning. that is what we have seen consistently for the past 10 to 15 minutes. this storm came in hard. 15 to 20 minutes ago. the rain just came in. [loss of audio] some of the what we're seeing all over the ara.

the place. traffic is moving relatively smoothly. thankfully in this area we have not seen problems. any traffic accidents. ratively a slowly considering the weather conditions are what they are. steve: that is jeff goldberg near potomac yard area near alexandria. e vain. a lot of lightning at this point. the weather bug network shows spotsylvania recording in an inch yaf -- inch and a half of rain. same for springfield. woodbridge inch and a quarter and an inch and a third in chevy chase with more on the way moving through the early evening hours. we should give you update on the latest with the severe thunderstorm warning. all the areas shaded in orange. this is now until 7:00. stretches from the district all the way toward the bay. it does include prince george's county. arlington and alexandria. western part of montgomery county. under the orange, we have a tornado watch. that is where you have the

that is until 11:00 tonight. i suspect most of that will come down before then. as the atmosphere begins to stabilize. once the line of the storms moves out of here. earlier, we were talking about just how tall these storms were or are at this time. keep in mind, in perspective, when you are flying in anarch, you are cruising around 38,000, maybe 40,000, 42,000. earlier about 15 middlesbrough ago we had tops close to 60,000 feet. not looking at that now. we will stand out of the way. we will bring it forward a little bit. this is 30,000. you can see the intensity now beginning to drop a little bit. if you bring it forward a little bit to scan the storms. you can see exactly the cloud tops are beginning to ease as we move through the overnight hours. not overnight hours but through the next hour or so. that is good news. things are beginning to settle down. where we have the storm look for very, very heavy downpours. a lot of lightning. potential for

flooding. that is why we have a flood warning posted for the district and surrounding counties for this everything. as we show you again, the cloud top for the storm between 20 and 30,000 feet. keep in mind 15 minutes ago we had cloud tops upward of 60,000 feet. here it is. this is the storm moving across the district. upper northwest d.c. to the west end. capitol hill. it moves north and east up toward the baltimore area. doug hill has more. doug: we will update you on the warnings. there are no tornado warnings in effect in the viewing area. the closest area is hanover county, virginia. there is a tornado warning in effect there. also ajaysesant section of the caroline adjacent section of caroline county. this is where we are looking at now. radar indicated possible tornado. severe thunderstorm possibly producing a tornado. no ground verification of that. otherwise what we

with are the severe thunderstorms producing what you see here is torrential downpours. some lightning. occasional hail. the entire line continues to move east. we are still under the area east of the blue ridge under tornado watch until 11:00. good news is that threat is going to end. in the area well before 11:00. good news there. it is not that time yet. we still have another hour or so to go. with the potential of more spin-up tornadoes on the line of the severe thunderstorms to continue to develop across the area. doppler radar has been consistent all day showing the line. what we have seen in the past hour is the extent of the rain broadened out. sometimes what happened is this goes from being a very active thunderstorm to more just torrential downpour with the gusty winds. process of doing it now. look how wide it is. impressive area of the heavy rain. we continue to monitor because at any minute, any one of the little

strong line could develop rotation. that happened in hanover and careline county. that is why the weather service in wakefield, virginia, issued tornado warning for those areas and why we are monitoring that storm cell. it will make track northeast at 60 miles per hour, it won't take long to get to king george county, northern neck and southern maryland. nothing happening there now. there will be the possibility of the tornadic activity in the areas. right now we see as you look at the loop. the red areas, red boxes. those are the active tornado warnings through virginia to north carolina. it doesn't hurt to repeat this again. this entire line moving east at 35 miles per hour. but the individual storms tornadic and otherwise are moving north/northeast between 50 to 60 miles per hour. so if you get a storm in your area and we get another tornado warning, it will be a quick thing. you won't have to stay or cover in the basement or the interior

the rapid movement of the cell and the storms. behind it everything changes. clear out quickly with the gusty winds developing late tonight and tomorrow unrelated to the storms here but related to enormous storm system powering all of this. it's headed toward the lake erie tonight and tomorrow morning. it's a massive storm system. we have been talking about the severe weather component. you get west over michigan and illinois. major snowstorm going on right now directly located to the powerful area of the low pressure. locally we are concerned about the rain. we haven't seen flood warnings yet. it wouldn't surprise me. because the torrential rain. the storms move quickly. it doesn't rain in one spot for that amount of time. we look at the loop and very heavy storms northeast of richmond. the areas are continued to be monitored closely. that one is the next area that might see spinning. it will come up for the middle peninsula, tappahannock to potomac and t

maryland. we are monitoring it closely. abc7's jonathan elias at the news desk downstairs with the latest update on the terrible tornado tragedy in waverly, virginia. jonathan: that was horrible. we understand three people are dead. eight other people are injured. five structures damaged. virginia police in the area now. they are asking and encouraging people to stay off the road. you can see why. there is debris and damage everywhere in the one area where they believe that tornado touched down and blew through. again, they were telling us at one point they thought there was a child unaccounted for and missing. that child has been located. they are putting the word out to people in the area. listen, if you know somebody who has not been accounted for as of yet let us know that. they are going through the process of assessing how much damage and maybe that there is somebody else that might not be accounted for at this point. a short time ago sergeant of the state police went before the camera. this is what she had to

>> we are doing a secondary search. this is a time where everybody is coming home from work. we are still trying to confirm and make sure everybody is accounted for. jonathan: we talked about a short time ago the damage and the heavy winds. they have had a lot of problems with the winds down south. this is 150 miles south of us. there were trees yanked out of the ground. they fell across tree lines. at one point the state police couldn't receive any emergency calls because the phone service had been knocked out. thousands of people we understand not only don't have the phone service but are knocked out with power. crews we understand as soon as the stormies through the area, they will be out immediately trying to restore power. doug? doug: thank you for that. i want to remind everybody in the immediate d.c. metro area the worst part of the storm is occurring right this minute. so over the next 20 minutes or so we should see improvement as the line continues to move west to east. give you updates here as we look forward in the next hour or so to locations where we will see the storms arrive. it will take an hour and a

southern maryland. it will give you an idea. 7:17. 7:45 close to the bay. we are talking in the time frame, an hour 45 to two hours before the viewing area is no longer under a threat. we have not had any recent report of tornado. only area under tornado warning just expired. that was in caroline county and hanover county in virginia. the good news is it was not extended. we don't see any indication close or downstream from the metro area until you get south in virginia toward north carolina line. and several active tornadoes are observed now over north central and central north carolina. our area mostly rain. heavy rain at that. occasional lightning and the wind gusts. everything continues to move the line from west to east. it is no longer a singular narrow line. it's broadened out. we use the term "stratiphied out." we have advisories and warnings in the area. area in red, flash flood warning in effect.

west of the area. loudoun county, fauquier, jefferson and berkeley county in west virginia. spotsylvania county we have the flash flood warnings there. we have flash flood watch in a large portion of the area lighted up in green for you across the area. that is the story for several more hours. the torrential rain has to go somewhere. in the street and creeks and the ponds. low lying interintersections. that is an issue. traffic is impacted by the downpour. at the tail end of the rush hour. has it been ugly or what, jamie sullivan? jamie: ugly but a different sense. i'm not seeing as many crashes popping up. major issues. i'm seeing a lot of the standing water. you can see here this is right in downtown bethesda. this is water comes down, this whole lane is completely taken out. this at elk street and arlington road. you can see the car starts to push through there will be a lot of road spray. hydroplaning is an issue we're seeing. be car

taking you right now in certain areas. so if you travel on the inner ten-mile stretch is an hour currently. traveling d.c. 295 northbound trying to get to baltimore we are over an hour to get there. 66 heading inbound. we had a crash for three hours. right before the capital beltway. 44 minutes. 95 south from the capital beltway to the occoquan, hey, that is the lowest taking you now which is 35 minutes. slowing everywhere. no major crashes. if standing water and the ponding we see all over. steve? steve: newly issued severe thunderstorm warning. this time for part of southern maryland. it does include calvert and st. mary's county including king george and la plata. this is until 7:00. about 40 minutes to go. you can see this area right here is the area in question. add it to the area for most of prince george's county and anne arundel. notice the district and arlington and alexandria, the

has canceled out for your region. that is good news there. but you still remain under the tornado watch. until 11:00 tonight. that will come down earlier than that. further south you go, still hanging on to tornado warnings. right now we have no report of any active tornadoes on the ground. we have nothing around the immediate metro area that suggests we are looking at the tornadoes in the region at this time. severe thunderstorm warnings, lightning and heavy, heavy rain. flash flood warnings and flood warnings continue now until 10:00 tonight. for most of the metro area including the district, arlington and alexandria and montgomery county. let's head 200 feet outside of our studios here in rosslyn. our kimberly suiters is braving the elements. it looks like it is improving a little bit. kimberly: when you and doug said hit the is the heaviest of it at the moment right now you were right. the rain were coming down in sheets. it almost feels like the clm

walking by and able to hold their umbrellas up. that was not the case five minutes ago. even as you can see, traffic is starting to pick up a little bit. it was awfully quiet here a few moments ago when the rain was coming down hard. you can see lightning strikes. it is dangerous to go outside because of all of that lightning. steve, it does start to feel like the calm after the storm. back to you in the studio. steve: is it getting cooler out there or still warm and humid? kimberly: i still don't need the winter parka but five degrees cooler from when we stepped out here an hour ago. steve: all right. kimberly suiters reporting live outside the building in rosslyn where the rain is beginning to ease a little bit. we should note the district, arlington, alexandria, the severe thunderstorm warning has now come down. but it continues for most of prince george's county and the area between prince george's county and the bay. until 7:00 this evening. the entire area, the area in yellow that is underneath the

tornado watch. until 11:00 tonight. i have a feeling a hunch it will come down earlier than that. show you the doppler radar. the heaviest rain now moving out of the montgomery county. moving out of the district. into prince george's county. the further south and west you know guys are beginning to clear in terms of the rain. no rain falling at this time. blue ridge, that is very, very good news. strongest weather activity closer in. we head in closer to d.c. metro area. if you are expecting anyone who travels the capital beltway. as you move through the busy rush hour commute. on a wednesday afternoon. wednesday evening. expect the significant delays on the mobiletrak7 on the side of me. it looks like the traffic moving at a fairly good rate. driving at least 45, maybe 50 miles per hour. at a good swing. with the heavy rain continues to fall. we head in closer reagan national airport. ground stop continues for them. look for that for probably another hour. you know the

they are reagan national. they are at dulles, b.w.i. marshall. philadelphia. they only add up and they compound. it makes things worse and worse moving through the next several hours. if you have a flight out this evening or you are expecting someone in to any of the local airports you can expect significant delays as we watch the storms slowly move on off toward the north and the east. i shouldn't say slowly. some of the storms they are picking up steams. moving upward to 40, 50 miles per hour. clearing out sooner than we anticipated. wider view. this long line of the storms continues to bring quite a bit of problems. not only for our area across d.c. metro but through the central virginia. and then into north carolina and south carolina. what you see the red marks here, these are all tornado warnings. notice they start we south of d.c. south of fredericksburg. but let me count. one,

five. six. seven. eight. eight active tornado warnings right now. all part of this intense line of the storms. they are moving off toward the north and the east. but i believe that the strongest the storm activity across the d.c. metro will happen right now until another half hour to 45 minutes. then all of this will begin to shift off toward the north and the east. then we will see the tornado watch boxes come down if not cancel out altogether. ours again is expected to expire at 11:00 tonight. along with the gusty winds and the heavy downpour. potential for the areas of flooding. check back with chief meteorologist doug hill. doug: keep on the image for a second. you will see the number of the tornado warnings to continue. one is getting close to essex county again. that is one we will keep. the middle pence of virginia. just north of that. severe thunderstorm warning extended up. what will happen we think we

this area. you can see the red boxes and the tornado warning. not that far from the northern neck of the potomac river. even if it does not stay tornadic severe thunderstorm headed for the bretton bay, st. mary's county for viewers there. probably for 20, 25 minutes given it is moving at 55 miles per hour. we have possible tornado. national weather service says that they believe it is a tornado. that is moving with the storm. certainly the configuration on the doppler even though it is far away from us looks impressive. it will move dogrin across the harry nice bridge from charles county into virginia at 6:39. st. charles, 7:07. that is in charles county maryland. later it will move up to the eastern suburbs toward the chesapeake bay. we are making progress. heavy storms will continue to move and the areas not getting any weaker. we still have a concern of the flooding. let's get update on the effects of the storm elsewhere around the area. horace holmes right now in the

horace: with banjo looking at the social media around the area. we are doing a good job of capturing the storm as it is blowing through. posting it on the social media. take a look at the video they have shot. this is coming from alexandria. you can see video right there. heavy rain in the alexandria area. then let's go. this is from alexandria. you can see a lot of lightning strikes that have been captured throughout the area. then the good news is this shot. coming from tom hart in ashburn you can see. we are getting shots of the people sending in to put up the posting shots of the rainbow throughout the area. that is good news. storm just moved through and passed through ashburn now and the rainbows are out. throughout the area. back to you. doug: thanks for that. we continue

storm as it will move west to east with a heavy rain. now mostly east of the immediate downtown area to the eastern suburbs through the prince george's county and headed to anne arundel and calvert counties. torrential rain and lightning. these areas from the d.c. metro east continuing under the severe thunderstorm warnings. they are torrential downpours. i mentioned a moment ago if we go farther south on this track that we will see numerous thunderstorms. additional tornado watches that are moving now through the western section of the middle peninsula northern virginia. we will be off the air in a couple of minutes but i want to remind you the coverage will continue live on newschannel8. as well as we update. many part of the area, southern calvert or st. mary's county could be under the gun from this storm producing a tornado as it moves through eastern section of hanover county and eastward toward northern neck of vals. this line will continue to be very active. all the way to north carolina. with at least seven separate tornado warnings in effect

fortunatelynate for us they are not in the immediate area yet but we'll monitor them. it is nighttime the dynamic in the atmosphere is so strong that they will continue to possibly spin up tornadoes and create more torrential downpours as the line continues to move east. we are in a watch across the region until 11:00. given the speed, given location i think that the threat of the severe weather will end well before 11:00 tonight in our area. we can't just blow this off and say well, it is moving through washington. we are done with it. we are not. it still has a possibility to produce more severe weather. that is a real concern. so that is why we encourage you to keep in touch with the newschannel8 throughout the evening for the continuous live updates on the storm. tremendous pockets of the rain, even indication now and then of hailstones developing around the area. that is something to watch. we are breaking for now. "world news tonight" with david muir is coming up here in a moment. remind you we will carry "world news tonight" live but in c

going to have update on the flood watches, florenrning, tornado watch, severe thunderstorm warning and breaking news tonight. we're on the scene of a deadly tornado outbreak. several states, homes destroyed. a dangerous night ahead from south carolina all the way up through new york. also breaking tonight, the race for president, and donald trump, now marching to super tuesday. his landslide win in nevada. and the major republican now predicting a trump surprise. the abc news exclusive tonight. my one-on-one interview with apple's ceo, tim cook. for the first time, cook on why apple is refusing to help the fbi break into the iphone used by the san bernardino killer. new details tonight on the pilot in that deadly chopper crash. what he was trying to do. and the famous sports reporter, the "dancing with the stars" host, erin andrews, suing her stalker and a major hotel tonight. did they put the stalker right