Last night’s storms might only be the start, according to the National Weather Service (NWS).
The city has had a rainy few weeks and now, the NWS says there’s a “hazardous weather outlook” in effect today and tonight for much of the region. NWS said the primary threat is damaging winds, but other threats include possible tornadoes and large hail.
(Updated 1:25 p.m.) Alexandria is still clearing downed trees and in the wake of Saturday’s severe storm.
No one was reportedly injured in Saturday’s storm, which cut off power to an estimated 15,000 residents. As of Monday at around noon, there were still 131 households without power throughout Alexandria, according to Dominion Energy.
Good Wednesday morning, Alexandria!
☀️ Today’s weather: The weather forecast predicts a mostly sunny day with a high of around 91 degrees. Expect a calm wind in the morning, turning to a south wind at 6 mph in the afternoon. Wednesday night will be mostly clear with a low of about 75 degrees and a south wind ranging from 6 to 9 mph.
The National Weather Service has issued a Severe Thunderstorm Watch and Flood Watch for Alexandria that will be in effect until 8 p.m.
NWS says to expect isolated severe thunderstorms capable of producing damaging wind gusts, and that flooding is possible.
A Severe Thunderstorm Warning is in effect for Alexandria and the surrounding area until 3 p.m.
The National Weather Service reported a severe thunderstorm in Oakton at 2:11 p.m., and that residents should expect 60 mile-per-hour wind gusts and quarter-sized hail.
Might want to stay inside: a severe thunderstorm watch has been issued for Alexandria and other nearby localities.
The watch is in effect until 9 p.m. but the National Weather Service said the storms are forecast to hit the I-95 corridor during evening rush hour and storms could persist overnight.
Alexandria is under a Severe Thunderstorm Watch until 10 p.m., according to the National Weather Service.
According to NWS:
As rainfall travels down the hills of the Parkfairfax neighborhood, the momentum sweeps it past the slim gutters meant to catch the water, propelling it further downhill to devastating effect. But fortunately, with a surge of political and financial interest being poured into flood mitigation over the last few years, stormwater isn’t the only thing gaining momentum.
Among the larger flooding infrastructure projects going around the city are a handful of smaller “spot improvements” that could play a big role when the next major storm hits.
There are around 1,629 Alexandrians without power after this morning’s storms.
Most of those outages are in the city’s central Seminary Hill and Taylor Run neighborhoods.
Alexandria still bears scars from the intense 2019 floods — notably the ongoing closure of much of Four Mile Run. Local residents are still reeling from floods since then, but some in city government have been pushing over the last few years to better prepare both city residents and infrastructure for future flooding.
There’s a suite of major stormwater infrastructure projects ongoing around Alexandria, but another major focus from the city has been working with locals to help flood-proof homes.
If you saw workers in bright vests around Del Ray last month, they were engineers contracted with the city, and their presence marked the start of design work for a major stormwater capacity project.
The project has the unwieldy name “Commonwealth Avenue and East Glebe Road and Ashby Street and East Glebe Road” after several smaller projects were smushed together.
