your home. hopefully you have a television down there or at least a noaa weather radio so you can listen to what's going to be happening here. around the 208, around brokenburg, mount pleasant, lewist lewiston, this is the area of concern with this second one. this warning, let me step out of the way, this warning, we've one at 5:15, another one that goes until 5:45. so one at 5:15, one at 5:45 as we make our way on through here. let's go to the north just a little bit, show you this northern area. zoom in on this region. we're talking about areas like berea, hartwood. if you live in these areas, lowest level of your home. if you have a basement, lowest level of the bakes away from windows. if you don't have a basement, it's okay but get into a closet. a closet a great place. a bathroom without a window also a very good place to go as these tornadoes continue to kick up and move through the rest of the region. right around bellevue. go up a little

this is fredericksburg right here. notice most of fredericksburg not under the warning, but these storms are moving your way. so you may not have the push alert yet on your -- from your nbc washington app. you may not have that alert yet, but those storms are moving your way too, so you need to really be at a heightened sense of alert. severe thunderstorm warning wak to the best and tornado warning -- and more severe thunderstorm warnings back to the north. let's go back to that other one. it includes loudoun county, gaithersburg. this is northern montgomery county, up towards frederick. we have some rotation here, but the biggest thing we're going to watch out for is the potential for very strong winds. we could have winds upwards of 50, 60 miles per hour with these storms. notice what these -- these are called skits -- this is what we look at. these are for severe potential across our region. >> and now we're starting to see the threat of flooding with some -- >> that's the flash flood warn

short period of time -- >> you need to take the radar off. >> a lot of the rainfall rates we were looking at earlier were upwards an inch per hour so around areas northern fauquier county up into clark county, jefferson county in west virginia as well as eastern berkeley county had flash flood warnings. probably going to see more of this too right along the line for this evening. again, about another two to three hours of this. so new flash flood warning. the severe thunderstorm warning to the north for frederick. that continues for a few more minutes. that's around leesburg, gaithersburg, mount airy area. if the you're down in this area around the tornado warning, just west of fredericksburg, hartwood, if you're anywhere near this warning area, fredericksburg, spotsylvania, to seek shelter right away. if you know so

area roads right now, 208 -- >> give them a call. >> 95. gave them a call. let them know what's going on. not to seek shelter under any underpass. try to get off the road if you can and get to a sturdy building. >> we've got this live picture right here. this is i-95 around the triangle area. this is just to the north of fredericksburg. this is a camera we'll be staying with over the next few hours. i want to go back to the radar. go back down. go west just a little bit. i think you just had the composite on. put the composite back on. this is the radar out of sterling. now, when we put the composite on, what the composite is does is put a bunch of radars together. we have richmond radar, d.c. radar. anytime you have the pink, that means this is a very strong storm with the potential for some very big hail as well, and this is the storm we're watching. we're watching this storm here and this storm down to the south. that's the potential -- is that hail potential? >> yes. >> that's hail potential down to

spotsylvania county. don't be surprised to see hail out of the storms. the biggest concern will be the strong winds, the tornado, and then the potential for hail close to an inch as far as that is concerned. that's a quarter sized hail for the most part making its way that way too. widen out. there's the hail right there. that's what we're looking at. that's going to continue as we move on through. that will move through portions of spotsylvania county. back to the regular radar. look how this is shaped. again, you see that shape. anytime you see a difference, you see the line and then that shape comes down. you see that bend, that's where we're going to have a lot of that rotation and that's where we have that rotation right now. again, spotsylvania county, southern fauquier, eastern portions of orange county, a tornado warning in effect until 5:15 and 5:45. more warnings will continue to come out, guys. we have no reports just yet of

anything on the ground. let me check. v.j. take over the radar for me. i will take a couple things real quick and get back to you. >> this is the area of most concern. i zoomed right into it. it's just west of i-95. 17, hartwood, just west and southwest of fredericksburg. spotsylvania as well. i will zoom in tighter. one of the things we want to encourage folks is if you are somewhere safe and not in the area with the tornado warning but perhaps up north around frederick where we have that severe thunderstorm warning, if you can once the storm passes, if you can send us some video, please do, but do it safely to nbcwashington.com. right now gep down again down t south, areas of fauquier, culpeper until 5:15 that tornado warning continues. let's go to live video of our storm team4 x 4 from stafford. this is

you probably already seen some of the damage, heard the reports. we've been telling you on news4 that there's been quite a bit of damage around appomattox, waverly area where tornadoes have touched down earlier today. this is really a dangerous situation that's unfolding. this is really heightened tornado threat for our area today. we've already had a number of tornado warnings issued and we could have many more. let's go to some of that video from earlier today in waverly. this was around 3:00, 4:00 today in waverly where a tornado touched down that's down in virginia. not too far from richmond. you can see the absolute devastation there throughout that neighborhood. that was a mobile home park which, you know, we d told folks if you live in a mobile home, get out and get to a sturdy building to the lowest level if you can. get out. >> i want -- if we can go back to our storm team4 x 4 real qu.

that. show me that picture because if he's in stafford county, if he's in stafford, this is our photographer b.j. forte. one thing i want to tell you to do is stay in that area. don't leave but i also want you to, a, get away from the power lines. b, try to get -- if you can get into an open field with the storm team4 x 4. i know the truck is ready for this kind of storm but you might want to move a little bit. if you can find an open area that would be really good to move the truck in because that's one thing you never want to do if you're inside a tornado warning, you don't want to be near power lines. that's a big thing there. i can see some power lines in front of the storm team4 x 4. b.j. forte, one of our photographers who knows a lot about the weather, so trust me, he's going to take good care of the storm team4 x 4 out there. he's watching us right now and we continue to keep in contact with him. back towards the radar and again, veronica has got -- we call these the skits. these are just looking at

atmosphere. look at all the rotation down here. look at the different rotation areas that we're watching. this is now moving very close to spotsylvania around the hartwood area. another to the south and west. this is why we have the tornado warnings. you see the rotation. again, the yellow means it's a little bit higher up in the atmosphere. ed rthe red ones mean it could e on the ground potentially. i wouldn't be surprised to see more tworntiornado warnings as e through. let's take you through all of the warnings again and here is the line making its way up toward the northeast. around the hartwood area, in through spotsylvania county. those are the areas of concern. go to the north and you see this area and loudoun county, montgomery county. this is the severe thunderstorm warning around frederick. if you live in frederick, leesburg, ash burn, gaithersburg, you want to get into the lowest level of your home. even straight line winds can cause a lot of damage.

70 miles per hour and that whole line is moving towards the east. would not be surprised too to see it even farther. notice where the flash flood warning is. northern fauquier county, loudoun county. never drihr roadways. turn around, don't drown. if we have a severe thunderstorm warning here, we'll most definitely with this line see another one just down to the south fairly quickly around fairfax county, prince william county, around fauquier county because that's where the line is going and that's where -- and we expect this line to intensify just a little bit over the next half hour to an hour and that's what we're going to be seeing here. look at this line right here. we haven't seen any warnings yet, but let's put this into motion over the last hour or so, but you can see this line. it's very, very distinct, very strong line of storms. has some lightning with it too. let's put the lightning on. look right there. right there is where you see the lightning. right there is where you see the

this will most likely be expanded to the north and east to encompass parts of fauquier county, northern stafford as well as prince william over the next half hour. whether it's a tornado warning continuing or it's a severe thunderstorm warning. notice the lightning strikes. 55 lightning strikes. that's not a lot for a thunderstorm. a lot of that has to do with how cold the atmosphere was earlier. now it's getting into the warm sector and that's what we're seeing. what we're not seeing is those very high top storms. we don't need them. we don't need them with this storm. there's so much rotation in the lower levels. you have rotation coming off. you have the winds coming out of the southeast to the north -- from the south -- i'm sorry, alof aloft. you have the winds zreming scre 60 to 80 miles per hour. waiting to get some kind of warning on prince william, fauquier county. it will probably come out fairly soon. orange,

fredericksburg, all under a severe tornado warning until 5:15 and 5:45. a ton of rotation with this and this is something that we expect to continue right on through the next couple hours. we're going to have much more on this right on through the rest of the night. veronica, we talked about this coming through. 5:30 to 6:30 right during the time of the evening rush. >> and we're seeing that unfold, of course, right now. i would not be surprised if some of these tornado warnings get extended more to the north and east to include even prince william county and the rest of stafford county. let me take those skits off what you're seeing rotating. this is the area i'm talking about. you can see where that zone of red is. that is the tornado warning. the entire area remains under a tornado watch until 11:00 but it's possible we could see another tornado warning come out right here in this area of fauquier county, prince william county. if you live in these areas, heads up for you and be alert.

down to the south too. that would be eastern stafford county, western portions of king george county, it's a possibility you could see a tornado warning issued. i understand the anchors have a question for us in the weather center. >> doug and veronica, you were talking about the people on the road. you have thousands and thousands of commuters. they're out there now heading down i-95 or up i-270. they have to pick up their kids at daycare. is this going to exhaust itself as it moves over just continue to be this bad as it moves? and what should they do? >> it's going to be this bad as it moves. and, you know, if you have somebody who is going in the car, let's say along i-95. we expect i-95 to continue as we move in. this is what you want to do if you're outdoors. drive safely tokl)ít sturdy sher if you can. keep your seat belt on. keep your head below the windows. you do not want to get out of your car, run out of your car,

wooded area because any trees that come down, you want to make sure the car at least gives you some kind of an obstacle between you and the trees. so do not go under a bridge or overpass. that's what you'd want to do if you're in your car. if you know somebody that's going to be driving into this area -- here is the big thing, if you do have to drive, make sure you keep it on wtop. you know we will be there on wtop radio throughout this entire thing with our storm team4 partnership with wtop. they will have the latest data on exactly what's happening. but if you don't have to go out and maybe i'll go out, maybe i'll get something, don't do it. for the next two hours, do not get on the roadways. >> speaking of the roadways, instinctively a lot of people may say i'm going to go under an overpass. are we likely to see heavy blinding downpours with any of this? >> extremely heavy rain. we have the flash flood warning. now that tornado warning, we told you it would happen. it's been extended through stafford and prince william

encompassed in this tornado warning. fredericksburg, quantico, woodbridge. probably until 5:30 but i want to -- no, this is until 6:00 now, this tornado warning is culpeper county, prince william, spotsylvania, and stafford counties until 6:00 now. this is not one tornado, folks. put the radar back up, j. v.j. this is multiple tornado warnings that are going on from multiple storms. one storm here. another storm here, another one down to the south. and that's why this is such a dangerous situation. we're not going to see just one storm come through with the tornado. we're going to have multiple tornadic storms moving on through the region, and it's going to be this area right here. a lot of rotation with this. a lot of movement, and notice where that is. this is moving right up i-95. so obviously the next track will be into fairfax un

the district and southern maryland. we have tornado warnings continuing for spotsylvania county, the city of fredericksburg, extreme southern culpeper and fauquier counties, all of stafford and quantico and prince william county to the south of woodbridge. if you're in and along i-95, make sure you get into an interior room. make sure you get down into the basement basement. get into a bathroom. a bathroom without windows is a very good place to go. you want to surround yourself with as many walls as you can. the more walls you have, the stronger the structure around you. so once again make sure you really protect yourself and get into these areas. now is the time to prepare if you're in fairfax county. if you're in prince william county because it's not there just yet. if you're in d.c. and really no matter where you are in our region, now is the time to prepare. make sure you're ready for the power to go out. we fully expect to see power outages. once again, we could see 50, 60-mile-per-hour winds

storms move up. that's exactly what we've been seeing over the past couple of hours and really the past two days with this storm as its moved through. new information? >> i'm trying to get a look at how strong the winds are as they come up in this area. maybe week get lauren to take a look at that. but one thing we're finding is that these storms are moving rather quickly. a dangerous line moving eastward very quickly. we've seen the tornadoes already just down to the south around areas of virginia, around waverly, around appomattox earlier today. you're seeing the damage around that yar and we'area. for folks earlier with the storms in culpeper county or madison county, back down toward green, those are now well east of you, so this is a line that's going to spend about 45 minutes or an hour on top of you before it moves eastward. as far as the tornado warnings again, let me zoom in because these do continue as we

they continue until 6:00 p.m. for stafford, prince william, areas of culpeper county. right along areas of i-95. route 1 as well. eventually these will be heading up into areas of fairfax. a good bet we will at least see for prince william, the rest of prince william and fairfax, at the very least a severe thunderstorm warning for you. we have that to the north. severe thunderstorm warnings. we also have flash flood warnings that have come up as this is intense rain coming down on area roads. probably a blinding situation. woodbridge, quantico, and down around fredericksburg. the other thing is the possibility of some hail. i've got a hail marker on now just west of fredericksburg where you folks could be getting some hail. there were report earlier today of hail in areas of north carolina and even south carolina. let me just go ahead and put that on for yo

at least of hail to the siz of a half inch, maybe a little bigger. we, of course, have also been tracking the wind because even if you're not in the tornado warning possibility with this line of some severe thunderstorm warnings, we're seeing the winds now come up very high in areas just west of fredericksburg and approaching stafford and that wind will be coming right over areas of 95 and route 1 in the next couple of minutes. all right. let me go -- >> these are moving, veronica, 55 miles per hour. so, you know, the more that these move, again, at 55 miles per hour, that's the kind of winds you could see. there's our storm team4 x 4. he's trying to get to a place that does have a little bit more protection. he wants to get away from power lines. he wants to get away from some of the trees that are out there too. we have a lot of lightning down around the stafford area. that's where he is, down around stafford. there it is right there. there's the

yo can see up ahead -- let's take this picture full guys because as he's driving, notice up ahead. see how it goes dark and then very light. that's the very intense rain you're about to drive into. that's not clearing. that's the very intense rain. v.j., b.j., i want you to get off the road. i need you to get into an area -- an open area if you can because once you see that region come up, those dark clouds, once they pass you, that's when you're going to get the extremely heavy rainfall. don't see any kind of lowering from the clouds so that's some good news but we see a lot of lightning associated with this too, but that's your gust front right there. notice when you see those dark clouds, that's not the rain. the dark clouds are actually the lighter clouds behind that system. so you can actually see that line. and when that dark cloud moves over top of you, that's when the rain really starts. you can see it's raining on him just a little bit. but i want you to

there to your left, b.j., if you can maybe take that left right there into that parking lot. that might be a better area for you. i see those power lines to your right. let's maybe get to that parking lot there to your left. and then if you can orient back -- i know you're going to try to do so. you got a lot of debris to your right. get as far left of that debris. there's even a wall there that -- go ahead an stop right there, turn around so everybody can see what's coming at you from this direction here. but all that, this is what you look for when you're trying to find a place to go. you look for debris that could come into your area. you want to get to a region that does not have a lot. this is a great location. has a couple trees but they're smaller trees, but notice again the dark clouds. this is -- can we find out b.j.'s exact location here? okay. again, you can see

clouds coming over, and you can also see where those -- the brighter clouds are. the brighter clouds are where the rain is. orient for me, b.j., if you can, turn right just a little bit more so i can see exactly how this is coming through. what you're going to see on the lower end, see how the lower end -- right there is perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect. what you're going to see here once this dark cloud gets overhead, you will see this rain come down. what you're seeing ahead of this, you're seeing what's called scud and what scud is is clouds that form -- okay. this is courthouse road in stafford county. colonial forest high school. thank you. colonial forest high school in stafford county. this is where our photographer b.j. forte is in the storm team4 x 4 right around colonial forest high school. you can see the lightning associated with this but also the heavy rain. what you will see with the camera, you see some showers, but in just about

seconds, it looks about 20 seconds you're going to start to see very heavy rain coming down right around his area. it may be more like 30 seconds to a minute because i can see how this is moving your way, but that's the gust front. you will see the trees starting to move. they will start moving a lot faster with this as well. so this is something that we're going to watch. you will start seeing the trees moving with the winds, winds gusting upwards of 50 miles per hour. this is a tornado warned storm. tornado warning for this area in stafford county as well as prince william county until 6:00 continue. right now looking at the latest observations, it looks like we don't have a whole lot of rotation associated with this now in that region. maybe it's back to the west now, a new tornado warning possibly coming up for fauquier, prince william -- >> there's a flash flood warning that was just issued for caroline county --

spotsylvania county. we're seeing the heavy rain there. it may not be long before we see perhaps another tornado warning issued just west of where we have this one around stafford county. another tornado warning issued for the southern portions of fauquier county and western stafford county that could be filling in as we're seeing some indication of rotation. not just early rotation but rotation within the storm system. let me put the radar back on for you, doug. there we go. so this is the little area we're looking at right here -- >> what is that? that's 66, guys. traffic is going to be a mess. if you don't have to be on the roads tonight, guys, just do not get on the roads for the next hours. let's let this pass. that's what we're going to be seeing here. let this pass. go down to woodbridge right around the woodbridge area. i'm talking to max one here, lauren. if you can go down to wood ri

we're taking a look at that. veronica is showing us where the chance for rotation is. we're working with our vend or o see where the wind is blowing aloft. that's what we'll continue to watch for. we continue to watch these areas of rotation that are developing. let's take those off, take these skits off because i want to see how this is moving. look at this line. look at all the lightning associated with this, okay? that's where the tornado would be. we have the other one towards spotsylvania county. i'm waiting for them to put out some kind of warning for fairfax county, loudoun county, prince william county, maybe a severe thunderstorm wning, maybe even extending that tornado warning a little bit. let's go back to our storm team4 x 4. most likely seeing heavy rain as the darker clouds have moved over. there's the heavy rain you can see right there too. not seeing a lot of wind. those small trees moving just a little bit but not

of that, but what we are seeing is heavy rainfall that's now coming into the area and it will get heavier. so b.j. is down there and if you're around that area, colonial forest high school, you're probably seeing the rain begin. that rain came through and let's go back. we just had 66 a minute ago, 66 and 234. let's go back to that. that's where we saw -- we saw just a second ago, this is on news 408, we just saw the other side of the road about two seconds ago. we just showed you this picture. you cannot see the other side of the road now. that's how heavy the rain is. we're seeing extremely heavy rain with this right around that area. again, i-66 at 234 making its way out of fairfax county. extremely heavy rain right there in towards portions of prince william county. this is prince william county just to the east of gainesville is where we are seeing this extremely heavy rain making its way on in here. this is not a warned storm. this is not a warned storm. we don't have a severe thunderstorm warning or a tornado warning with this, but

rainfall. you can see right where that is. that camera right here. that's where that camera is. so you can see 66 coming out of fairfax county and that camera is right here, right around where all the lightning is. you see our photographer b.j. forte, how it's moved past him just a little bit so he's able to get back on the road just a little bit down to the south. look at the heavy rain around manassas, sudly. clifton, burke and fairfax and chantilly. look at the rainfall rates here. 2 3/4 inches of rain in an hour. now, it's only going to last a half hour but you can quickly pick up an inch to an inch inform. 3.4 inches in an hour. so again in a half hour you could pick up 1.5 inches. that's why we have the flash flood warnings. not only thunderstorm warnings. we have flash flood warnings and we have those tornado warnings down to the south. let's go back down to the tornado warned storm. i want to see if that's going to continue as we move to the north. again, r

it's just to the west of i-95 moving to the northeast. so on this trajectory it will move across i-95 in towards places like the widewater area, around quantico. intense lightning that's really fired up around garrisonville, around the triangle. this is 234. follow 234 down and you see it come right across 95. that same area around dale city, you will get hit here. you are under the gun for the tornado warning. get in the lowest level of your house, away from the windows. make sure you keep us on if you can. make sure you have a noaa radio if you can. hopefully you have a phone. you can watch us on the phone. download the nbc washington app and take it downstairs with you and you can watch us live so we can keep you posted. but look at the tornado warning.

warnings that have come up here. another one down to the south. another one south of that. more south of that. they just keep going. they just keep going all the way down towards raleigh. that's the line that we're now watching coming through here. once this line is out, it is done. we're not going to be talking about any more severe weather. say that again, april? route 50 at 28. that's going to be right around the centreville area, right in this region. you can see that right here over my right shoulder. route 50 at 28 seeing heavy rainfall. this is right around -- right in towards centreville, right around chantilly. this is around the sudly plantation area. if you have ever been there maybe on a field trip. this is moving to the north. look at the red. look at the bowing out. it means we could be seeing stronger winds associated with that too. watch out around clifton, laichwood estates. you can see it moving to the little river turnpike. no

that's what we're looking at. this is shear. not a whole lot but we are seeing more down to the south and that's where we've seen those tornado warnings. notice what's happening here. one thing we're not seeing, haven't seen a whole lot of those little couplets here where we've got air going in different directions. what i'm looking at here is more of a gust front type scenario where we have the air rushing out from those storms upwards of 40, 50, 60 miles per hour. so that's what we're seeing with the storm waiting to see if we're going to get some more, maybe some more rotation out of these storms as we continue to move back. back with the storm team4 x 4. things have started to lessen up just a little bit. now they're just dealing with dark clouds. v.j., do you want to take it more a minute? >> one of the things i wanted to talk about doug or somebody can drive the radar for me is we were taking a look at the wind shear. the wind shear superimposed on top of the radar. we say these storms are flying along at 50, 60 miles per hour. we have a

thunderstorm warning for fairfax county and d.c. and that goes up until -- let me step off to the side. see what time that goes up until. for d.c. until 6:sa. >> and that's the same storm we were just talking about. >> 6:15. we're still seeing the storm system bow, a line of thunderstorms just out ahead of it. let me step into the weather wall here. if you want to pick me up. so along the line we've got a severe thunderstorm warning. goes up to also include gaithersburg, bethesda, d.c., clinton, waldorf. and down to the south that's where we still continue with the tornado warnings up until 6:00 p.m. let's go ahead, doug, and put the shear back on because one of the things i wanted to take a look at was to see just how high the winds are within the shear that we're seeing currently right along the front as it makes its way eastward. right along this gust front. there you can see some of the purples and the blues. some very strong wind

high winds. so even if you're not -- we're talking about the possibility of isolated tornadoes, but also the threat of some damaging winds coming through. look, anywhere from 50, close to 60 miles per hour the winds coming out ahead of this storm system. let's go ahead and widen out a bit just to show the entire line. again, we mentioned some of the rainfall rates. just blinding rain on some area roads right now. this is going to be about 30 to about 45 minutes when the line comes in and over your area that it's going to take before it makes its way out of your area. about 30 to 45 minutes. so you have quite some time. during that time the winds are going to come up as well as some very heavy rain. we could see a handful of power outages. it's possible the dark red you're seeing here is where there's currently some flash flood warnings that have been issued and that goes all the way from areas of fauquier october, northern

we have live pictures of 495 in old dominion. you can see some of the traffic backups. you can also see some of the dark clouds right now hanging fairly low. we haven't gotten any reports to our desk yet of any damage across the area, but we know that there are some very high winds and this is all part of the same storm system that earlier today around appomattox, around the waverly area did quite a bit of damage as tornadoes did touch down. doug, if you can take off the radar for a moment and let's show all the warnings through and through. again, we've got until 6:6:15, there's the storm team4 x 4 sitting in traffic. a lot of folks going to be late getting home. this is coming right at the worst time, right during the evening rush. tornado warnings still from areas just south of d.c., eastern prince william county right through

we've got further down to the south around fredericksburg, not just a tornado warning but also a flash flood warning there. and in the yellow, that's where there's some severe thunderstorm warnings. so even here you need to stay put, seek shelter inside. for those folks in the tornado warning, get to the lowest area of your home, make sure you've got a radio with you, listen to wtop. we'll tell you on there too when the tornado warnings have come down as well as if you have a weather radio, take that with you. but right there around happy cree creek, winchester. fairfax with high winds. woodbridge, you will be getting some of that. mt. vernon heading your way by 6:07. on towards the chillum area by 6:22. storam

early part of the day. we a we were telling but it yesterday that this would be an intense line coming through our area. the worst of it is for the d.c. metro area, going to be coming through in another 30 minutes or so. it will be about another 30 to 45 before it's east. so i think by the time we get to maybe 7:00, 8:00 this evening, most of that line, guys, is going to be east of i-95 and headed out over the bay. wendy, you have another question for us? >> i was wondering, veronica, if the character of a storm changes as it goes over a metropolitan area because of all the concrete. does that change the character at all? >> it can change it somewhat, just the frictional effects and that sort of thing as we see storms when they come across the mountains at times. not a summertime situation for us. we've -- today temperatures

county and cooler conditions in frederick. frederick into the severe thunderstorm warning. you can see the intense lightning. one of the things we look at too as an indicator if the storm is strengthening or weakening, and right now there's a lot of lightning still with the line as it comes into the d.c. area. a lot of lightning, a lot of rain in a short period of time that could lead to flooding, and a lot of wind. doug, if you can put the lightning back on and let's take a look at the number of lightning strikes over the area because we showed you earlier when this storm was just west there was like 50 lightning strikes within that box. now just within this area of fairfax to quantico, i-95, there's is -- 176 strikes. an indicator the storm system is showing signs of strengthening. still some more skits showing the possibility of rotation and the possibility of wind da

here. severe thunderstorm warning for d.c., fairfax, northern charles county, areas of prince george's county until 6:15 and the red you see, we continue with that tornado warning that extends down just to the south. so with any of these storms, of course, some heavy rain, i think we're likely to see more flash flood warnings issued across the area. as far as down to the south with this system, one of the things, doug, can you go ahead and put the storm reports on. >> let's see if we have any of those that have been listed so far. look. there's the funnel cloud. we've had two reports of funnel clouds. >> there's one. >> let's query these for you. >> there's one right there. >> there's one in stafford. funnel cloud. >> so that one was down in stafford county. we're showing the time. the time of the report was 5:32. a funnel cloud was reported just a half mile north of the stafford

building. >> another one right there in fredericksburg. >> fredericksburg area. we've got the storm team4 x 4. you're seeing live pictures of that right now around courthouse road in stafford county. just widen out a little bit more and let's see because there was probably -- i think there was one more report earlier today, doug? >> of a tornado? >> yes. jim, while we do that, you have a question. that one was just east and south of charlottesville, the other tornado report today. >> and that was a tornado reported on the ground at that point. you can see that time of that tornado at 4:24. we did see that one come through. we had reports of that on the ground tth. >> and all the way down to the south there were more reports that started more tornado touchdowns earlier today throughout parts of the carolinas. >> veronica, you had mentioned it's about a 30 to 45-minute window when you see this huge swath over your town or your neighborhoo

seeing, how long do they stay in this place and how fast are they moving and moving on? >> well, it really all depends. for the tornado warnings that we're seeing right now, they're lasting somewhere around 30 to 45 minutes or so. so for any of the reports that you're getting across the area we don't want folks to think that, oh, okay, it's now east of me, i can step out and everything is okay. wait until the warning is down. wait until you've gotten the clear and that this storm system is all the way east of your area. right now you can see some very, very heavy rain. that's why our storm team4 x 4 in stafford county still in traffic where traffic is really getting backed up across the area. this is on route 1 actually right now. very heavy rain coming down across the area. probably a lot of folks coming home late for dinner, late from work today as we're

come up with some of the storm systems. doug, let's put the tracking back on for at least most pow powerful part of the line. >> i'm also tracking this on other form of doppler radar, tracking the storms as we're moving off. i want to make sure we get the timing. these are moving close to 50 miles per hour. take a look at what we're dealing with now as we move this over the next half hour, where this is going to be. take a look at 5:41 west springfield. bailey's crossroads at 5:48. in and around bethesda at 5:52. chillum around the 6:00 hour. college park at 6:04. that's the strongest line. that's right on that line. what we're going to see with this most likely is just going to be straight line winds. we're not seeing much in the way of rotation here. this is straight line winds but notice the bowing out of this line. normally we had a line earlier that went straight

now we have a bow that pushes out from the middle of the storm system. anytime you see a bow echo like that, that's when we have winds that are pushing out in the midlevels. when that happens you get those winds that come down to the surface and then they move right across the region. so that's why we're expecting 50 to 60-mile-an-hour winds. i'm going to read the warning real fast one more time. i want to see what the national weather service has these winds at. winds could be upwards of 60-mile-per-hour. so that's what we're going to see. veronica is looking at the shear with the storm. what this is going to show is those winds just off the surface. 51-mile-an-hour winds here. 52-mile-an-hour winds moving through fairfax county. let's zoom right on down to fairfax. i want to zoom into the city of fairfax. watch out around herndon. watch out around reston. this is where you're seeing this. so this line is the gust front. this line is what's going to come through you very quickly at that 50 to 60-mile-an-hour mark. we're

it is. 5:44 around fairfax. 5:45 around oakden. m merrifield at 5:55. that's the next 10 to 15 minutes you will see this line. let's zoom in a little closer. what you will notice along 66, we showed you that area. there it is right here. this is what we're looking at here. the heavy rainfall coming through. this line, there it is, that bow. you see that bow. you see that very heavy rain. you're going to notice the heavy rain come through. here is 495 right around annandale, right around idlewood area, around falls church. you're going to see that line come through, push through with that heavy rainfall and then you will see that wind. those wind gusting 50 to 60 miles an hour. right around university drive, right around the oakden region, around

with little river turnpike. the tornado warning continues but we're not seeing the rotation here. we're just not seeing that rotation down to the south. if we were seeing that, it would be down to the south. what's that, april? april is my producer. she's talking in my ear right now. say that one more time. 66 at nutley street. that's what we have going on right here. you can see traffic at a standstill. anytime we introduce rain into the area, our area just shuts down for the most part. that's what's going on around 66. always a tough time this time of night. you add in severe weather and you see people are not moving very fast out there around i-66 and nutley. this is right around the vienna metro station. you see exactly where that is so you can see the metro even going by there too. back to the radar. focusing to the south of where the strongest storm is. looking for areas of potential rotation. not seeing a whole lot. now, we have a couple

them skits here but not seeing a whole lot of areas that would tell me that we've got a big tornado possibly on the ground. so we have the tornado warning. i want to show you when the tornado warnings are in effect. they're still in effect until 6:00. have any of those come down at all on the wider view? have any of those come down because i don't see a whole lot of that rotation going on around the area. now, they're still up. they're still up in quantico, still up in prince william area. they are not up in fairfax county. we have not seen that transition but we have now seen it through prince george's county, all under that severe thunderstorm warning. that going all the way through the 6:00 hour. so again we've had the tornado warnings. they have not come down. so that says they're still seeing some rotation in there, and we are still seeing a little bit of that into parts of the region. that's what we're going to see moving through. is this hail? >> this is hail. so there's a chance, of course, of some hail in

size we had talked about the possibility of some half inch size hail. there were reports earlier today down to the south with this system. let me just go ahead and put on the marker here and see what it's showing in terms of the size of the hail. just a second. so here it's showing our hail could be anywhere around one inch. this is just west of woodbridge area. areas of south and eastern prince william county, put the radar back on for you. that's what we're seeing as it makes its way toward i-95 and route 1. these storms moving along at a pretty good rate at around 50 miles per hour or so off to the east. so one of the things we said, yes, this is a situation, a dangerous situation. you'll have this weather come up, and when it does, it will last for about 30 to 40 minutes or so. >> now, go back -- let's widen out again, veronica. i want to show the rest of the line and show it down to

you folks in southern maryland, this is the line that we've got -- let's put it back into the motion and put the tornado warnings back on there. what we're looking at, and real fast -- just click forward. and now we've got that line coming through again. this area right here we're not seeing a whole lot of rotation. we have thom -- let's take that shot. let's take that right now right outside our studios because what we're going to see here coming through here in northwest d.c., we're coming through, you see the darkening of the clouds. look how fast the clouds are moving. you see the lightning across the area. go ahead and roll on this camera. we can roll on this and show this later tonight at 11:00. we will continue to see the storm move right through downtown d.c. coming through right within the next 15 to 20 minutes. it's coming through bethesda. back to the radar. veronica has zoomed in on it for us. look at the wind really starting to pick up

can see our tv towers there at nbc in northwest d.c. we're right on nebraska avenue and northwest. we're going to continue to watch these storms moving right on through. we're right here, and you see what's happening back down around bethesda, around 270. let's take 270 and father hurley boulevard. you see the lightning, the rain. the traveling, even though there's not a lot of cars on the road, people going really slow. extremely heavy rain going on. a lot of lightning around this area too. let's look back -- new severe thunderstorm warning. you can hear the beeping. that's for montgomery county, howard county, carroll county, and portions of baltimore county. that's river road, 495 south. this is always an area that has problems this time of night. look at the people driving. look at all the road spray there. so very nasty conditions there too. what we have seen is those severe thunderstorm warnings. >> it goesup

until 6:45 for frederick, howard, montgomery county as well as, of course, fairfax and loudoun county until 6:45. >> until 6:45. take a look at the tremendous amount of lightning right now in through fairfax county and montgomery county. look at this lightning that's here. now, we're not going to -- i don't think we'll have much in the way of tornado warnings for this part, but let's widen out again and i want to show the radar again and let's go farther south. look at the line, look at the line of tornado warnings with this system. now, let's put the radar back on and zoom right back into southern maryland area, fredericksburg included, because i want to show you what's happening and the difference between the two distinct areas we're seeing, one of which -- let's take the lightning off. one of which is this line. notice, this is a fairly continuous line. look at all the reds here. continuous line. get down south of quantico and you start to see it breaking up. look at the break between fredericksburg and the next line. anytime you see tha

you put the skits back on you're going to see some rotation coming out of these storms. you've got a little rotation down south, a little more here, more down towards richmond. so these are the storm that will move towards the northern neck. these are the storms that will move to southern maryland. you folks are the folks i think still have a chance of seeing some morph tornado warnings. so again d.c. south and eastward, best chance for tornado warnings as we see. but just an incredible line of thunderstorms. we're not talking june, july, august thorgeunderstorms. these are february storms. on the back end you have snow in chicago, maybe up to a foot of snow in parts of michigan, but right now what we're seeing, this is an el nino fueled storm system. we told you last week the potential is here for a big storm. we weren't sure if it was rain or snow. we're on the warm side of this, and you're seeing that severe weather all the way up. look at the line all the way up into central pennsylvania back to the west it's all snow. blizzard warnings are up f

the circulation pattern here coming on why. we saw temperatures go from 43 in d.c. up to 65 in a matter of about an hour or so. other areas staying on the cool side but there's the line of storms all the way down. yesterday responsible for 36 tornadoes reports yesterday. u=i9î reports yesterday. let's take some video. this is out of manassas. who shot this, guys? this is off our twitter. thank you very much. hail in manassas. this is hail coming down. you notice the hail bouncing off the car here. look how heavy the rain is. we want to say thank you to sfazjr. thank you for including us on that twitter post. but you see the very heavy rain. the hail not very big. it looks like pea-sized hail but we are going to have the potential for some bigger hail continuing to come on through. go ahead, wendy. >> we have been watching the airport here and

all three airports have now halted incoming flights. about ten minutes ago we saw a flight coming over the 14th street bridge landing. so all incoming traffic at all three airports have been halted. >> let me ask you something, doug. this is not going to exhaust itself as it moves through. this is continuing to be as strong as ever, correct? so people to the east as this is coming their way, they're not going to expect this to start wearing itself out and lightening up at all. it's still going to have a lot of muscle to it, correct? >> if it hasn't hit you yet, it's going to hit you, and if it's hit you already and you are starting to see things getting a little better, we're getting reports of rainbows after this storm back towards loudoun county, seeing some of those. so it will get better over the next hour or so. d.c. metro area, this moving on through here in the next hour. gaithersburg, montgomery county, i think you will be better in the next hour but you have a severe thunderstorm warning until 6:45. what are l

take the banner off. take the banner off. check this out. this is so cool. notice the difference. i showed you this earlier. notice the dark clouds to the top of the screen, the lighter clouds to the bottom. that's not clouds. that's rain. that is rain coming out of the storms. look at the amount of lightning with this too. we're going to roll on this. roll on this because this is going to be amazing to see as this whole thing -- this is the gust front that's going to make its way our way, come right over top of us, give us that heavy rainfall, give us the very intense lightning that we've seen there too. by the way, the tornado warnings for stafford, prince william county have been allowed to expire. they are no longer in our area. we do not have any warnings, any tornado warnings in our region. i think that's going to be the case for maybe the next hour or so and then we'll see another round potentially down around the northern neck and southern maryland. that's where we expect those to be. but take a look at that picture right there. that shows you exactly what's happening. as this moves further, as this moves closer to our ar

overhead. once the dark clouds get over you, that's when the heavy rain starts. so the dark clouds don't actually have the rainfall. it's the clouds to -- it's the lighter area, that gray area. that's where the rain is associated with. just got this. amelia segal is helping us. downed trees if fairfax. we're seeing that. wfre radio has been knocked off the air down around the frederick area. we have had a lot of issues with this now. notice the severe thunderstorm warnings. there's a new warning. let's see if it's down south. see where this warning is down south? nope. not seeing it pop up just yet. i'm interested to see if anything happens in this area down to the south. but we're looking at prince george's county, northern charles, fairfax county. we've got hail now that's come through the wood bridge area. so wood bridge saw hail as those storms moved through. that tells us this

county, alexandria, right through bethesda, through potomac right now, rockville, gaithersburg, up around montgomery village, this line has the history of seeing some hail. we're seeing a lot of hail. we're seeing a lot of lightning with this as well. once again just incredible to see this happening in the month of february. now, we mentioned father hurley a little earlier. take that full. let's take that full. you notice the difference just in the last ten minutes around father hurley boulevard which is right here. notice now we're seeing lighter skies. is that some sunshine? i can't tell if that's sunshine or highlights that are coming in there, but that looks like some sunshine now starting to poke through i-270 and father hurley boulevard. five, ten minutes ago you saw the incredible lightning. this is i-495 south of river road. always a mess. even on the best of days this is always a mess. i take this way home all the time. always a mess back towath

traveling through the heavy rain. b.j. and i talked earlier, b.j. is our photographers driving the storm team4 x 4 about where we should be going. we said i-95 would be the worst of the storm. that's exactly what we're seeing around fairfax county, the worst of this through the district, right around the beltway now around springfield in through the newington area seeing some of the worst of the storm. >> one of the things i wanted to talk about, we, of course, said the one location we're really going to keep our eye on was the fact we don't have any tornado warnings for our immediate area right now. down to the south areas like caroline county, western caroline county, there is a tornado warning that could continue. i'm going to circle the area we're going to keep a close eye on as we move forward over the next hour to two hours. that is right in here. so king george county, charles

neck, this is where there could be some more tornado warnings issued. i'm going to put the skits back on for you and show you that there is still some early rotation that's taking place down here. this is the spot today that really saw the temperature soar, that really had a lot of warmth, had a lot of moisture down there sh , and where the most intense winds are that are being transported downward. up to the north we have a number of severe thunderstorm warnings, baltimore county, howard county, up into carroll county as well as hartford county until 6:45 severe thunderstorm warning. while we're not seeing the tornado warnings around the immediate d.c. metro area, we still could see some very high winds come up around 40 to even upwards of 50 miles per hour for a time period. i'll take off the lightning and put on the wind shear for you so you can see what we're talking about here. there you can see the

that's where there's the potential for high winds coming up now. let me go to the area just to the west of d.c. and through fairfax gcounty. just west of mt. vernon, where you see the purple, this is where the winds could be 50 miles per hour. headed toward franconia, mt. vernon, around newington, some very strong winds and very heavy rain on area roads. rainfall rates in these areas have been upwards an inch and two inches per hour. falls church, you're in that severe thunderstorm warning. alexandria, right into d.c. and east to kettering, clinton, landover hills area as well as upper marlboro and brandywine and waldorf. all now in the severe thornti . thunderstorm warning. not a good time to get on area roads. another 30 to 40 minutes before it passes this area.

it's on to anne arundel county, calvert county, and st. mary's county where it will be doing the same thing. producing a lot of heavy rain, a lot of lightning, and a lot of wind with the possibility of some wind damage in these areas as well as more flash flood warnings being issued. we do have that flash flood warning that is right now still up around spotsylvania county as well as northern of 66 and up toward i-81 to include jefferson and berkeley county and western areas of loudoun county and fauquier county so flooding also a possibility but just a mess on area roads for at least another hour to maybe hour and a half. doug? >> let's take a look outside right now. i want to take a shot just outside our studios here from the nbc 4 storm team4 weather deck. you can see what's happening with this picture here. again, what's going to continue to happen is the wind are going to be up there. the rain. look at the wind. look at the wind and the rain rigut

this is what's coming through. this will last a good say half an hour or so, and then it moves on through, and what we've seen behind this, we've seen rainbows. we've seen double rainbows coming through here. so it does get better very, very quickly, but just as fast it gets very, very bad very fast. if you're in downtown d.c. right now, these are coming through your region. here we are in northwest, but it's coming right through doubt rig downtown right now. we'll show you where we are and then where we are in downtown. so here is what's happening. we are right here. here is wisconsin avenue right here. wisconsin avenue is here. this is connecticut avenue. connecticut avenue, wisconsin avenue. we are located right here, and you can see that very heavy rain coming through. let's go downtown. you can see not a lot going on down here right now. we've got some rain, a little bit of lightning, but the heaviest is about to push right in into downtown. if you live in southeast, if you live in northeast, down towards anacostia, it's coming your way over

minutes. you will see detier yateriorati quickly. arlington, roslyn area. take a look at the 359 bridge. back towards 66. the key bridge also. key bridge, there's the key bridge, and notice what's happening. very heavy rain coming through around the canal, down along 123. look at that line. when you see a line like this, again, we don't see rotation most of the time with it. we see the very strong winds and that's why we have severe thunderstorm warnings with this line. the chance for tornado warnings back down to the south, that's where we're going to continue to watch for it, but extremely heavy rain. we just showed you outside how fast that rain is coming down. the wind that's blowing out there, and we'll continue to see that for again the next 20 to 30 minutes. extremely heavy rain. new severe thunderstorm warning coming up for this line now includes northern charles county, still prince george's county, but also now includes anne arunde

calvert county. this line, this severe thunderstorm warning, try to get the latest, 8:00? >> until 8:00. >> until 6:45. >> yeah, yeah. you're right. >> the 8:00 is for the flash flood warning that's out there for parts of the area too. we'll continue to see that. knotts how much of the area is under a severe thunderstorm warning. if you're south of this line, that's where we expect to see the tornado warnings come back up if they do, in fact, come back up, but right now this is a severe weather threat. this is more of a straight-line wind event, talking 50 to 60 miles per hour. a lot of people have asked me is this similar to the derecho? the answer to that is no. i don't think we will see 80-mile-an-hour winds. we saw 86-mile-an-hour winds in reston during the derecho. it's not the same kind of