NoVa Weather Forecast: Tornado Possible As Storms Hit Region Wednesday

STERLING, VA — Get ready for a windy Wednesday filled with storms and even a small risk of a tornado. Forecasters are predicting a series of thunderstorms to blow through the area Wednesday.

Weather.com forecasts that the Washington, DC, area will see isolated thunderstorms in the morning giving way to a windy afternoon and then more widespread storms, with some being severe. Highs will be around 78degrees, with winds blowing southwest at 20 to 30 miles per hour. The chance of rain is 80 percent.

The National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center has placed the D.C. area under an "enhanced risk" of severe thunderstorms during the afternoon hours, with a line of storms making their way through the area between 1 and 4 p.m.

"Storm-scale guidance moves a squall line into the I-95 corridor during the early afternoon (roughly 18-21z) coincident with appreciable diurnal destabilization and steepening of low-level lapse rates and becoming more favorable for momentum transfer," the NWS statement reads. "In addition to the risk for widespread damaging winds, the stronger/longer-lived mesovortices embedded within the line may yield a weak tornado risk."

Record highs for today are 80 degrees at Reagan National Airport, 77 at Dulles Airport, and 80 at Baltimore-Washington International Airport, says the Capital Weather Gang.

The evening will give way to showers and some storms, with lows dipping into the 40s. Thursday will have much more of a pre-spring feel, with breezy, sunny 40s-to-mid-50s weather before an overnight drop into the 30s that could bring a touch of snow.
»Image via National Weather Service