3/16/26 Severe Weather Event Thread (Moderate -> Enhanced -> Slight) RESULT: Significant wind after dark

[arlwx12]

High standing water on I-70 and I-495 being reported by WTOP.

 

[snowfan]

Columbia is about to get wrecked by a wall of water.

[pazzo83]

0.4" earlier today and 0.3" from that line that just came through.  I'll take it!

[WxUSAF]

Just now, snowfan said:

Columbia is about to get wrecked by a wall of water.

BRING IT ON

[Interstate]

3 minutes ago, wasnow215 said:

It's funny as you're saying that there's pictures of tornadoes being put on here lol. Receipts

Technically it was a Funnel Cloud

[NorthArlington101]

Was windy and rainy for 45s. Good thing I got let out at 2pm

[arlwx12]

National Weather Service Baltimore MD/Washington DC
216 PM EDT Mon Mar 16 2026

The National Weather Service in Sterling Virginia has issued a

* Severe Thunderstorm Warning for...
  Northwestern St. Marys County in southern Maryland...
  Southwestern Prince Georges County in central Maryland...
  Charles County in southern Maryland...
  Southeastern Stafford County in northern Virginia...
  King George County in central Virginia...
  Southeastern Fairfax County in northern Virginia...
  East central Spotsylvania County in central Virginia...

* Until 300 PM EDT.

* At 216 PM EDT, a severe thunderstorm was located near Potomac
  Creek, moving northeast at 45 mph.

[09-10 analogy]

Sky is brighter than it's been all day. Destablize!

[wxmeddler]

Yeah, these 50+ dbz returns are definitely putting out 3-5"/hr rain rates.

[Kmlwx]

And another factor for any forced line later (or synoptic winds, for that matter) is that for areas that get a dumping of heavy rain - the soggy ground could make even sub-severe gusts capable of tree damage. 

[Amped]

2 minutes ago, wxmeddler said:

Yeah, these 50+ dbz returns are definitely putting out 3-5"/hr rain rates.

The lack of CAPE prevented a tornado outbreak, but it couldn't supress the 5"/hr rain rates.

[SomeguyfromTakomaPark]

Looks like a good amount of stratiform rain coming now, should be good for spring vegetation.

[adelphi_sky]

Man! Talk about splitting the uprights in the break of line of storms!  Line missed to my north and south. lol. I didn't even get heavy rain. 

[WEATHER53]

Line  blew thru here at 2:10pm with 50mph gusts and white out style rain if 0.75” in 15 minutes

[Kmlwx]

59.4/59.4 at Colesville now. Off the high of 67.5

[WxUSAF]

11 minutes ago, WxUSAF said:

BRING IT ON

Looks like best juice moved north. But starting to rain now

[WEATHER53]

20 minutes ago, stormtracker said:

Should we make a thread about the 4 -6 inches the GFS is laying down?  Because, you know...that's going to happen.

It’s appears to me models tried to get very very specific once again and once again showed that’s not the route to take

[Paleocene]

Real gullywasher in Silver Spring - dumpage for a solid 15 - 20 mins. Yard pondage

[adelphi_sky]

Just now, Paleocene said:

Real gullywasher in Silver Spring - dumpage for a solid 15 - 20 mins. Yard pondage

Yeah. The cutoff was my neighborhood. I got a whiff. Not even heave rain. Just a brief 5 minutes of moderate rain and then light rain again. 

[WEATHER53]

2 minutes ago, Kmlwx said:

59.4/59.4 at Colesville now. Off the high of 67.5

Kenny I dropped from 69 to 57 in 5 minutes 2:15pm

[Paleocene]

Just now, adelphi_sky said:

Yeah. The cutoff was my neighborhood. I got a whiff. Not even heave rain. Just a brief 5 minutes of moderate rain and then light rain again. 

Looking at the loop, I barely missed getting skunked. Heavier stuff was further north even just up the road at @WEATHER53's house

[Eskimo Joe]

13 minutes ago, wxmeddler said:

Yeah, these 50+ dbz returns are definitely putting out 3-5"/hr rain rates.

SB I-270 at Tuckerman lane closed due to 1 to 2 feet of water across the road.

[mappy]

Thunderstorm warned here. Dumping rains 

[Paleocene]

Just now, Eskimo Joe said:

SB I-270 at Tuckerman lane closed due to 1 to 2 feet of water across the road.

That tracks with my experience in southern moco - literal creeks running fast across normally dry land IMBY.  had to be 2" per hour or more rates

[Stormlander]

Just now, adelphi_sky said:

Yeah. The cutoff was my neighborhood. I got a whiff. Not even heave rain. Just a brief 5 minutes of moderate rain and then light rain again. 

I’m in Riverdale and logged 0.06” in 14 minutes. It feels a little bit personal, have to say. 

[LongRanger]

58 with light rain 0.19", peak gust today 26 mph

[SnowenOutThere]

1 hour ago, weatherwiz said:

The dirty warm sector stuff really did a number on the lapse rates...might be difficult to really re-destabilize sufficiently. Also wondering if the better forcing started lagging behind a bit. A lot of this activity really struggled to become mature and develop strong updrafts. Instability didn't appear to be too terrible but maybe was just too weak given the magnitude of the shear so updrafts were being toppled over before they could sufficiently grow vertically.

This probably isn't going to pan out to how it once looked but this is far from over. Window from say 3-8 PM could be interesting from central Virginia into North Carolina. 

We had more than enough spin for a tornado to occur. I mean every single shower showed a couplet of some intensity. Just couldn’t ever get anything to take advantage of it. Wasn’t cape either for a bit. The initial stuff had surface cape of 500+, just never built up into the upper atmosphere. 

[87storms]

in Florida, this weather is called a Monday. The rain has been beneficial, though. Hoping to get a little clearing before the cold front pushed us back into winter for a day or two.

[clskinsfan]

I know the backend snow thread is closed. But this is a pretty good sounding for tonight out this way. Would be cool to close this out with a car topper.

 

[WxUSAF]

Heavy rain but no thunder and light winds