Those storms in particular, not rotating right now. But again down to the south, where these temperatures have just really sky rocketed, did you notice that . This is what we feared. That those storms were going to really fire up as we had a very dramatic rise in temperatures. And again continuing to watch right toward the fredricksburg areas. As a matter of fact, can we jump over to radar . And thats going to be a little different picture. Youre going to see some of the areas down to the south that were watching. And let me get in a little bit closer. Again, Tornado Warning until that got expanded until 5 45. So these are some of the storms that were watching let me see if we can get you a little bit more information on what we are seeing and im going to take this out of the mode of looping and lets get right in this one. Its headed right for the fredricksburg area. Our last report that came in a couple of minutes ago, its about 13 miles west of fredricksburg. So if you live or anywhe fredricksburg, virginia, youre probably seeing the winds pick up, you can see it as you look out to the west. This is a serious storm. It has indicated rotation. It has a Tornado Warning attached to it. So this is when you need to heed our advice and if you are in that area to get to the lowest floor in your home. A basement is preferable. Away from the windows to take this seriously. All afternoon we have been watching this line that has produced some tornadoes in virginia. We are very serious about these storms. And these storms are rip roaring across the state. Theyre moving quickly up to 65 Miles Per Hour. This one says its moving at 56 Miles Per Hour to the east northeast. Spotslyvania youre in the path of that. Well continue to watch what is going on. And just a note to the producers as we are continuing to watch this, i would certainly muscle up some Traffic Cameras as we look down to the south and east. Our reporter Marina Marraco, we had her positioned correctly. I hop youre listening online, we want you to first of all, take your safety seriously and get out of the way of these storms until after theyve passed. They were already noticing the winds really picking up. And as a matter of fact, we have marina available to speak with us. Can you hear me . Reporter yes, i can hear you. We just crossed in from Prince William county into stafford county. We were positioning ourselves for 5 00 and now were driving south on route 1. Traffic is very heavy. It seems like a lot of people going to get stuck out on the roads. I95 south also extremely heavy. We did see a few accidents coming in as the rain was north of us. Now where we are in stafford county, its dry for the most part. However, the sky has gone pretty dark in the last couple of minutes. Its transitioned from a bright gray to now an ominous dark, gray we see these clouds like youre saying, very fast moving. So were starting to see that wind pick up where were positioned here, sue. Thank you for letting us know what youre seeing. And again that warning for you, the Tornado Warning will go until i understand 5 45 now. So lots to keep track of. This is really going to evolve very quickly. I would urge all of you to get out of the way of this thing. Its going to get through here in the next couple of hours. By 8 00 or so or maybe even before that, its moving so fast. We may be in the clear here by 7 00. But obviously right now we have to watch this closely. Let me widen out the picture and get a better idea of what is heading in our direction. The area of concern right at the moment, right down here. Im going to take the radar off briefly so you can see this. These are our current warnings. Everything moving to the north northeast. Put that radar back on and show you again some of the cities that are in the path of this. As you look at this in motion, look how north northeast. Let me pause that. And again put another storm fan on and well have mike thomas is going to join us in just a few minutes as we continue to watch some of the cities in the path of this. And he is going to show us where were seeing some of the best velocity with these storms. So chancellor, hartwood, crossroads and stafford you want to be seeking shelter right now. If we tried to even zoom in on the crux of that storm where you see those dark reds and pinks, that is if there is rotation, it would be within that area. So that looks to me anywhere from just west of spotslyvania. So some of these smaller towns. That pink looks to be your heaviest rain. I dont see a defined tornadic signature, anywhere there is potential for rotation and ahead of it gusty wind too. Those are some of the more localized areas. It looks like you just put some velocity here. I realize this is odd looking to people as we look at some of these to see the signature for a tornado within this theres nothing too well defined on the velocity just yet, for the viewers at home, velocity is what were looking for what the winds are doing in a storm. Look for the greens meet the reds. Thats where the wind shift is. Theres this one area just north. If our producer could go over to max 3 that way we can show them the velocity. There we go. This is whats called velocity. You want to look for the greens meet the reds. And we are looking at this area right here. Theres a little bit of circulation here. But again, its generally a very welldefined line. And if i go back over to radar here, you see how its bowing out. Its what we like to call a bow echo in the weather world. And this kind of bow that you see here is just an indication that theres some very, very strong winds with this particular storm. And its all racing off to the north and to the east. And this is going to be a situation we continue to see throughout the next half hour to hour, really. And once this line does get through, we do expect conditions to rapidly improve. And it will stay gusty as we go forward. The strong winds will be definitely something to be reckoned with. These things do mean business and there is some significant damage in the community of waverly. Its hard for me to tell what that is. It does look like some is long route 460. This is just southwest of williamsburg, virginia. This was a large tornado that came through and unfortunately three fatalities as a result. But also significant damage and thats why were so concerned about any Tornado Warning this afternoon. This might just be Straight Line winds but it doesnt matter. If you have Straight Line windsor rotating winds, its still incredibly dangerous. If we go back to max 3, notice this is headed right for 95. Within the next 20 minutes or so theyre going to be seeing the really heavy rain and winds along 95. If you know someone who might be traveling, ask them to maybe seek shelter if theyre along this stretch, the fredricksburg, spotslyvania area even aum all the way up to charles county. Its moving fast. Find a Shopping Center and get out of your car and get into a more sturdier shelter. And if you are on 95 and you see the winds really picking up, its not a bad idea to take an exit and pull over and just kind of wait until the thing passes. And the warning is set to expire in about 6 minutes here. I would not be surprised if they extend it or switch it over to a Severe Thunderstorm Warning. We do not have any confirmed reports with a tornado on the ground. It is primarily radar indicated rotation. I do want to show you, a correlation coefficient, to give us an idea of where some of the strongest winds are. The brighter greens you see, right around chancellor, virginia. That just means that wind is picking up some debris and blowing it through down there. So regardless of whether or not there is a tornado, winds in this area are Strong Enough that its actually leaves, and Everything Else that it can and blowing it through the region down there. Does anything concern you with what youre seeing . I dont have a good signature on the velocity for any strong tornado on the ground at all. Again, there is rotation and the chancellor area right now, but nothing that im seeing on radar indicates anything on the ground, yet. But were keeping our eye on it. We are in continuing coverage mode because of ongoing Tornado Warnings. Very serious situation. We knew fdour area was primed the possibility of strong storms that could in fact rotate. And while were technically under a tornado watch until 11 00 tonight, we believe the worth of it is going to be within the next couple of hours. Again, weve had a deadly tornado in the waverly areas, were been showing you. So far no eyewitne a a tornado with this batch. Weve got about five more minutes and mike you think this is going to be extended. It likely will. It still has a lot going on. Any hail reported with that one . I think i put one of our hail signature pictures in there too. Lets just see if anything is showing up on that. Looks like we do have some hail. You can almost tell that some of the pinks and purples that you see showing up on radar is hail indications. We have had a little bit of hail reported. Any time you have hail to the size of golf balls, thats a sign that the storm is capable of rotation and the strong winds and obviously we are seeing some hail signatures across spotslyvania. So exactly where we have our warning. And caitlin, has that been expanded or they think theyre going to keep it at 5 15 . No. We did get one that was issued until 5 45. If you look at the warnings, theyre kind of overlapping on each other. At least for fredricksburg, spotslyvania and stafford you are under the warning until 5 45. I would say everyone wait it out until the second warning has been cancelled and that would be at about 5 45. Because theres rotation being picked up in different spots within the same segment of the storm so thats probably why they have two warningsished. Along with that we have the severe thunderstorm issued for frederick, montgomery, counties in maryland and also berkeley and jefferson counties in West Virginia and portions of fairfax and loudoun and thats until 5 30 and that is also for damaging wind, straightline winds and you can see that bowing on the eastern flank of the storm, right approaching 270 at this hour. And this is what were concerned about. Were getting into the height of rush hour. Youve got these incredibly strong wind gusts associated with these storms that are producing lightning and very heavy rain. Heads up frederick. Gaithersburg, german town, rockville. Youre all next storm thats moving through leesburg and even if youre not under a Tornado Warning, you are under a Severe Thunderstorm Warning. At least the warnings north of the beltway but that whole line he extends just west of our area. Amazing we are talking about Severe Weather here in late february. We thought this would be a snowstorm last week. Its 63 degrees now. This storm has found massive el ninolike energy and theres so much spinning going on. We expected a dramatic rise in temperatures and we knew it was a matter of time before these storms were going to feed off that warmth and they are indeed doing that. Very springlike it remind me of a springlike system. I didnt think that originally. But now were getting all the elements that come together at the right time and the place. Some cool air still stuck at the surface in some locations. But theres so much warm air just above our heads that were able to get thes lets go back to the Tornado Warning for just a second because this has now been extended until 6 00 p. M. For the next weather service. So Doppler Radar indicated still its a severe thunderstorm capable of producing a tornado. Theyre obviously picking up on rotation. This is right west of fredricksburg. Probably right on top of it or it looks according to radar just about. Its moving northeast at 55 Miles Per Hour. Theres some incredible wind with this storm whether rotating or not. Heads up still for fredricksburg and culpeper, Prince William, spotslyvania and stafford counties. Prince william is a new addition. Heads up there. Marina marraco, im sorry that we sent you exactly where this is, but she is en route, and stafford and boy the sky does look a little bit different. Reporter if youre looking at pictures it went from day to night in seconds here. That tells you how fast this is are, you can see some light in between the clouds but directly ahead of us heading south here on route 1 in stafford, it is completely overcast gray, for the first time were starting to see the rain pick up here. Because it was fairly dry for the past hour and now were starting to see some rain. And always the birds are one true sign of whats to come. Weve seen quite a number of flocks of birds out heading north up towards Prince William county. Lightning starting to pick up as well. Were seeing some activity there, were definitely starting to see that lightning. I dont know if you can see that on the band that you can share with us, but were seeing whats to come ahead of us, collectly in front of us. I saw that lightning flash in your picture too. How are the winds . Reporter i dont know if you can see, theres flags here to the left of the us in front of this black car, maybe that will give you some sense here, a little bit of how the can you see that . A little bit. My tv is very small that im watching. Reporter its hard to tell. Youre starting to see the wind pick up here. Theres not a lot of leaves on the trees here. The flags showing you lalt more wind than we saw when we were farther up north. Now here in stafford youre getting a sense that were heading straight for the storm. Thank you marina for that report. Were going to check in with you in just a few minutes. Mike youve got eye good storm track up there so people needs to know who needs to get out of the way. The storm continues to race off to the north northeast pretty quickly and it looks like if it continues at its current pace, woodbridge, 28 minutes for you there. If you are in the path of the storm, certain sli find yourself some shelter and prepare yourself for it. We want to make sure, as we consider tornado safety. You will be okay in a tornado if and one of them is make sure you know where it is. If there is a warning for your area, that means a possibility of it being sighted or a signature on radar, you go to your basement. If you dont have a basement, you go to a hallway, an interior room. The goal is to stay away from windows, stay away from flying debris. Many of the injuries that we saw last night in louisiana and pensacola came from building damage from highup floors and windows and people being hurt by the flying debris. Shelter yourself from the debris. Youre going to be okay and youre going to get through this. I believe we do have some video out of waverly virginia from the tornado that struck that community earlier this afternoon. This is what were seeing right now. Obviously plenty of debris. That looks like some road signs knocked over. Trees down, wires down. You know, its just a total mess there. And the pictures that we saw indicated what would be a large tornado, ef2, ef3. Picture due to the scope of the tornado size. But extensive damage, you can see some of the trees looked stripped there, at least some of the branches down and it looks like some structural damage as well. We also heshd of three fatalities in the waverly area. Route 460 has been closed down probably due to all the debris. This is just to our southeast near the Williams Burg area and this is just an indication how strong these storms have been. There have been many reported tornadoes throughout the afternoon in North Carolina and this one here in waverly. I think we have a warning over on the eastern shore. We want you to know were not forgetting about you over here. And i see a new warning. Lets get this to pause and see what we are looking at here. And it looks like down toward dor chester, somerset, you have a Tornado Warning until this is a dopplerindicated tornado moving northeast at 60 Miles Per Hour. So some of the communities that could be in the path of that, upper fair mount, i know you guys watch us, trinity, bird town, oriele, liquid and chad point. If you live in those areas, let me move that out of the way so you can see what it looks like under there. Get in a little bit closer, it looks like this was issued a little while ago. It goes until 5 30. Hopefully this thing is not going to be extended. But again right around the salisbury area it looks like its the most active now. We are watching what is going on for you as well. Put this in motion for the last hour. And just to give you guys an indication, sue, when youre done with that, lets go back to the Tornado Warning because we do have reports of at least a funnel cloud that was reported just northwest of fredricksburg. This is in stafford call center reported this. A funnel cloud meaning its not a tornado but you can see these spinups in the clouds, they lower, they can produce these funnel clouds even though theyre not touching the ground, that obviously does indicate the potential for them to touch the ground. Weve got that record so we can cannot caution anyone enough. The Tornado Warning encompasses 95 from fredricksburg up through quantico up through dale city. And its just before 5 30 p. M. So if youre in the city and you take 95 south to go home from work, please dont do it. We have reports of a funnel cloud down towards our southwest with these tornadic storms. So just very dangerous situation there. Its definitely right on track to parallel 95 up toward dale city here in the next little while. Why do these storms always like the 5 . I dont know. Its sauls the everything. So anyone who is in the hartwood area is seeing the heavy rain. They look to be in the heaviest spot of this storm. But usually whether you get these funnel clouds or tornadoes for that matter, they are produced in more of the Clear Airport of the storm. Not looking at anything on radar that indicates to me that theres a tornadic signature. But you sometimes get a lot of these spinups along these lines of very strong storms, even if its Straight Line winds with these squall lines so that could have been a result of that. But either way we got that report just around the fredricksburg area. 9 minutes to garrisonville, 23 minutes to triangle and about 26 minutes to dumfries. What about the dc area . Its probably going to be not too much longer. Across 66 near the gainesville area were beginning to see that coming on in. Fairfax youll be affected by this very soon as well. Dont want to forget you, we do still have Montgomery County and it looks like parts of Frederick County and maybe a very small portion of Howard County in a tornado a Severe Thunderstorm Warning. And this is until 5 30. So a few more minutes for that one. It also includes carroll and frederick if i didnt mention that already. So well watch that closely. And youve got some new information, caitlin . This is just out of waverly. This is the formal Media Release from the Virginia State police that they are responding to the severe storm damage along route 40. At least five structures within the town limits damaged as a result of this storm. There were reports of seeing a funnel cloud. No official declaration of it being a tornado yet. They came from twitter so you have to be careful with this. However we saw enough damage that indicates that it was tornadic damage. Vdot is in the process of setting up detours in that area and they are responding to the scene. Its a rough situation when youre caught in one of es storms and youre in your car. And if thats marinas picture, you can see why she was saying she went from day to night as that very ominous looking greenish colored cloud starts approaching, loaded with rain, possibly loaded with hail, that gives it a funny looking tint. You want to watch for large hail, that kind of cloud, a wall cloud, another sign of approaching rotating storm. Maybe some debris blowing around. The roaring of the wind, get out of the way of any of those signs. That leading edge we usually call a shelf cloud and what will happen is youll get these incredible gusts of winds to indicate the beginning of a storm. That is your indicator what is coming at you is a very severe thunderstorm. Sue, youre so right. I dont know why but that greenish tint to the sky usually does indicate theres some hail imbedded with the storm. I do want to mention we r can head over to fox 5 dc on facebook and watch us live as well. Im going to take a couple of questions because weve been getting a lot of questions on the Facebook Page here. Go ahead sue and continue your storm coverage and i will find some questions. Especially mike if you see anyone who is living down in this area. I know marina continues to drive but as she gets closer and producers if she has anything she wants to contribute, just jump right in and tell us what we need to know. But again, the most Important Information right now, this is our ongoing Tornado Warning. I dont think theres another one right now. This goes until 6 00 for fredricksburg, the city of fredricksburg, culpeper, Prince William, spotslyvania and stafford. On high alert. A funnel cloud has been reported. A funnel is a tornado does not touch the ground. Obviously marina, what are you seeing right now . Reporter maybe you can tell us a little bit more here but were starting to see what appears to be clouds rotating, at least in opposite directions of each other. Were starting to see pretty Significant Movement from these clouds and that green sky. A lot of electric activity in the back. You see the lightning i dont know if you can see our pictures here, if youre looking at the radar. We have not seen anything form, per se. But you can see a cloud start to rotate what appears to be against each other. Im sure that storm is spinning given the warning and thats one of the things we look at on radar is that rotation inside the storm. Many of them these in particular we know have a history and are capable of unleashing maybe a tornado that might be hard to see because of rain. Is it raining very hard where you are right now . Its not. Its starting to sprinkle. But we have noticed, i dont know if youre seeing all this lightning activity, we have started to see our temperature drop. The car is registering 63 degrees. I believe roll down the windows and you can feel the humidity and the temperature start to drop here. Oh, you might be in an outflow too. Thats some cold air rushing out of the storm. Interesting to see what happens with that but we hope as we look at everything continuing to move, im going to pause this for a moment. Marina, if you can hear me, i know youre in stafford county, but do you have a better location of where you are, what roads or towns youre near . Reporter we are on route 1 south. We were, i woulday miles south of the Prince Williamstafford line. We are just north of stafford city. But still on route 1 here at the junction of i95 and route 1. On mine road. It looks like its wow. Is that a new one. Were about two miles south of that. Okay. Well, that helps us to see what you are experiencing. By the way, while you guys are watching this, and again thank you guys for putting up with us as we show you a new color out here. These are flash flood warnings that have gone up in the green and again our ongoing Severe Thunderstorm Warnings to the south. We do worry a little more about those red boxes, the active Tornado Warnings and we continue to see those again as we check through some of our still dealing with a Tornado Warning the next few minutes for accomak, dorchester, somerset and wicomaco. Lets check this area again, we know where this is where marina is. Culpeper, Prince William, spotslyvania and stafford. Down to our south, im going to move on down. Lets see what else is in the pipeline here. I believe shes a little bit northeast of where the storm is. So waiting for it to approach her there. So be careful because you are. Reporter two miles north of the stafford airport. So if any of our viewers who are watching us in that area, anywhere along stafford county, if youre not seeing the storm yet, you will be soon just like marina is. Dale city, quantico, virginia. It is still under that Tornado Warning until 5 45. Alo down to the south as the entire line seems to be rotating. Mike youve got a picture up on radar if we can ask the control room to go over to that and you can see some of the brighter colors indicating where there may be hail. We can get inside some of those storms and see which way theyre moving and get more detailed information on each of the storms. So lets get to this one here. It gives us a little pieces of information that are helpful as we continue to track these live for you on fox 5. This one is moving northeast at 62 Miles Per Hour. You can see that its outlined the box. The towns, obviously garrisonville right now, aquia, this particular storm has some hail potentially in it that could be about 1. 5 inch or so. A big storm moving again northeast at 62 Miles Per Hour. So as caitlin said just a little bit of these storms is going to be enough to give damage. And i see marina has got her picture up again too. It looks like that cloud continues to get a little bit lower. It looks like, sue, we do have a Severe Thunderstorm Warning that just went up including the district of columbia. Caitlin is that what youre seeing as well . They decided not to issue a Tornado Warning in continuance of this cell down in Prince William county but it is a Severe Thunderstorm Warning charles, montgomery, Prince Georges County, dc, arlington. Until 6 15 p. M. And there is a straightline wind threat with this storm. Weve got a damage report that came out of stafford county. Trees down on powerlines. That damage threat continues into washington and all of the dmv. Its not a Tornado Warning, but it still means seeing as were streaming this live on facebook as well, the biggest question were getting from our viewers is where are these storms heading. We have a lot of people in Southern Maryland saying hey, are these heading in our direction. Generally, yes. The strongest storm lookings like its about to cross skwus to the snort and that may be southern portions of Prince Georges County. It may puch Prince William county. Whether or not it will be as strong as it currently is remains to be seen. This is generally a welldefined line straight up and down 95, from fredricksburg up to 270 in frederick. This is all moving off to the east northeast. We should also mention. We have not had any confirmed tornadoes in our area. We did mention the waverly. And the reason theres always a delay between confirmation of a tornado and some of the pictures that weve seen is because they usually like to have the National Weather service and others for insurance purposes asse with the damage. We did hear of a funnel cloud in the fredricksburg area. Funnel is a rotation, a tornado that is not touching the ground yet. But so far these are radar indicated and we have fot heard of anybody in our immediate area seeing a tornado. You know, with this approaching the beltway right about now, lets zoom in to get to a closer level so we can show people exactly where the storm is moving through. And how quickly its going to be into your neighborhood. Because right now parts of fairfax and Loudoun County is in the heart of this with the heavy rain and the lightning and the wind just at this moment youre seeing it approach the western side of the beltway so pleases like oakton right now, youre seeing the heaviest rain. Chantilly, mannasas is almost on the back side of this, this is moving so quickly. Route 66 right now, i would imagine being on there between falls church and out towards gainesville is an incredibly rough ride. If youre watchi dont leave yet. Wait for it to pass. Its moving quickly. Anyway, these storms are moving eastward very quickly. Reston, virginia. You guys are going to be hit with these storms pretty quickly. Places like annandale and further east on 66, i would expect within the next 15 or 20 minutes or so, you guys are going to be seeing that. Lets put a track on this actual storm. It is moving off to the north and east. 5 35 in burke, 534 in annandale. 6 03 downtown washington, the thing is even though im just naming those towns, this is a long line of storms that is encompassing the area. So everyone is going to see it whether youre in certain of the district, Southern Maryland and over into Prince Georges County with those storms. The big threat with this is the Straight Line. The National Weather service is concerned about the bowing of that line. Less about rotation and more about Straight Line wind damage. Be aware of where you are in your home in relation to a tree that might have been weakened and get out of the way of that. Straight line winds can do a lot of damage as well and this could really have some strong winds as it passes from southwest to northeast through the district here in the next 30 minutes. And we thank everybody thats helping us follow this on facebook. Meg moore reporting hail in woodbridge, virginia. Tim robinson said a lot of rain and hefty strong winds in leesburg virginia. We are starting to get a lot of reports in as we head into the evening rush. I want to show this. This is wind sheer. This is something that we look for when we are potential for rotations or for tornadoes within a storm. This is wind changing direction and speed with height. Now, you can also see this very clear in a squall line that is bowing or producing these very gusty Straight Line winds. This is telling us as i look at it right now, across portions of fairfax youre seeing Straight Line winds. Especially up here, just north of chantilly along route 28. That is some high levels of wind sheer at least indicated by radar. Again, youre not under a Tornado Warning. It doesnt indicate that you will be seeing on tarnd, however some strong, gusty winds. This is moving incredibly fast. That extends just east of clifton, about to hit route 123. And then further south ward down towards dale city. I like how well that shows up just as the bowing segment of that storm. That is about to hit the western side of the baument way. W report, a train spotter did see another funnel cloud. This is a second report. This one was about half mile north of stafford government county building and that report came in at 5 33. So that was in the community of roseville, stafford county, virginia. Its a tornado that has not touched the ground. Speaking of virginia, a spokesperson with Virginia State police is joining us live. Thank you soemp for taking time on a very busy afternoon and evening to join us. And what is the latest from your perspective . We are seeing severe storms across most of the commonwealth. The most severe storm which did have reports of a funnel cloud seen in the area but has not officially been declared a tornado was in the town of waverly. It was around 2 40 in the afternoon when police started getting reports of the storm damage and at this time we are able to confirm there have been three fal five structures within the town limits damaged as a result of this storm. At this point the bodies that have been removed from the scene are being transported to the medical Examiners Office for positive identification and so forth. Were very sorry to hear that. Were you able to tell us are these fatalities people traveling in a vehicle, were they in a home . Unfortunately because of the situation down there and the damage, so access is very limited. So our folks on the ground, they are managing the scene, were having a little difficulty. Im in richmond, getting in touch with them to confirm the various bits and pieces of information. But once we do have that well be getting that out to folks. We are asking people who are traveling down in the waverly area, they need to be alert for downed trees, powerlines, standing water, a lot of debris on the roads. Were seeing that in a lot of areas in the commonwealth right now to include even northern virginia. Were showing some of the pictures as we stroll through trafficca an awful lot of rain. This is a very difficult day to travel. Are there any roads closed that you know of across the commonwealth as a result of storm damage . I had heard on route 640 had been closed for a while. Is that open again . No, its actually still klaused. Route 460 and 640, that entire area is closed off. Due to debris, but also so that emergency vehicles can come and go without regular traffic interfering. Are there any other areas across the commonwealth that you are actively working right now that have significant damage other than the waverly area . Down in app matox county, our state police has no power and no phone service. So were actually asking folks down there to call 911 to Reach Department for emergency calls. This is impacting our entire appomatox division. Wow, very difficult day for you as well. We thank you so much. Is there anything else you need to pass along to our viewers right now while we have you . Just that when weve got Severe Weather like this moving through, be alert for downed trees, power lines, high water, standing water. Dont try to go through the water. If your windshield wipers are on, your lights have to be on. You want them on. It helps you see and helps other drivers see you. And we ask for folks to be safe. If they can delay their travel until the storm moves through, thats even better. And of course check on neighbors and make sure youre safe as these storms make their way through the commonwealth. Absolutely. A lot of times you see people driving with hazard lights on too. Do you frown on that . We do because hazard usually means that stopped and when some people may not realize when youre in heavy rain and its getting dark people may not realize youre still moving. You really need to use those hazards. I am stop, i am stuck, versus just driving slowly with them. But yes, headlights on, you definitely want to get good use of your headlights. And that way people can see behind you when youre braking but it will also help you identify high water on the roads, any debris on the roads as well and other vehicles. Thank you for joining us and we hope that you will be safe as well as everyone who works with you. Thank you so much for your information tonight. Thank you. Wow, the picture that we are seeing here on the right side of your screen, im assuming thats marina. That is really ominous looking. Lets see if were able to check in with Marina Marraco. No, shes not available. She is en route William County heading north on route 1. Well try to check in with her. Im glad shes heading northward away from the storm. You have to be careful when theyre out in these storms because it becomes dangerous for anyone. Lets get a radar check here around see how were dealing. We still have the Severe Thunderstorm Warning out for the district until 6 15 p. M. And that is primarily for gusty Straight Line winds in excess of 65 Miles Per Hour. And that yellow box indicates a Severe Thunderstorm Warning which encompasses not just the district but all the beltway into Prince Georges County, further south ward you guys are all under the same Severe Thunderstorm Warning. Basically the whole area we could see is under Severe Thunderstorm Warning right now. We all jump in. It looks like some of our strongest activity right now that might ha hail from res ton, to vienna down to dale city. So its progressing as we thought and we thought this would be very busy from about 5 00 until 7 00. Do we still feel good about 7 00 . Still feel good about it. Theyre moving extremely quickly off to the east northeast there. For those watching from Prince Georges County, charles counties you may not be looking at anything yet. But know these storms are heading in your direction. So you will have to deal with them. Again, were here in dc were probably done by 7 00, but Southern Maryland, eastern maryland, probably even beyond 7 00, theyre looking at the threat of thunderstorms. Very good point we want to make sure we arent forgetting about you. Maybe theyll lose a little bit of their energy as they get closer to you. We remain under a flood watch. Do be aware of that, that will go to 1 00 in the they did expire the Tornado Warning everyone for fredricksburg, spotslyvania and stafford. I think that is new as of 5 38. Still a severe thunderstorm in effect for the entire dc region. Just checking some of the wind velocities on our radar, i dont see any strong indication of rotation, although, again, with lines like these, we have a lot of clashing winds, not uncommon to see the funnel clouds which we have had reports of already around the region. Again, no confirmed tornadoes on the ground just yet. All warnings earlier were just radar indicated. Those have since expired and were now dealing with Severe Thunderstorm Warnings here in the dc metro region. I can see the lightning too on what i believe is marinas shot. Theres a ton of lightning thats being picked up. Thats another concern with this storm if you havent seen it yet. Thats always a concern. And this is j 95. From virginia all the way just west of 95 we head up towards the district right now. So a lot of lightning, rain and winds. These are main concerns with these active severe thunderstorms warnings right now. There is a little bit of good news. This is a pretty thin line. And if you zoom out there, you can see the back edge already coming in through Loudoun County, looks Like Northern portions of Prince William county. Probably all right to leave by now, the storm threat has passed for you. And again its a very fast mover. And if you just stand by and hold where you are, if you wait just a little while longer, we should be able to get things back to normal here as we go through the next hour or two. Weve got Lauren Demarco joining us via phone from landover. Reporter were actually on route 202. We just were heading towards the beltway outbound. Were heading towards the Prince Georges County Emergency Management center, where they are getting ready trying to prepare tond getting ready to respond. If you can see the sky, pretty ominous, it is dry right now, it feels very warm, very humid. Weve seen some lightning. And you can see those clouds moving very fast. Ive talked with dc Homeland Security and Emergency Management director and they are preparing as well in the district. Theyre concerned about flooding but the bigger concerns is going to be those high winds, potentially very damaging so theyre asking people to secure items around their house. Theyve been working with the department of transportation, department of public works. Forestry crews are coordinating with pepco if there are traffic lines, pow down they can respond as soon as possible. Theyre asking people to be off the roads. Were heading towards the east side of town. Theres definitely other folks in the way first. Hopefully everybody here will get home, be able to stay inside and get safe and they said just make sure things are secure around your house. Its certainly windy you can see the trees moving and the strange thing, sue, and mike, and caitlin, is that its so warm. I know you were saying that difference in temperature is whats feeding this storm, but its bizarre. We have tshirts on here. Its humid. You can definitely feel that and you just feel the storm is coming. Wow, your sky looks craze why. You may have seen a sign there that says Tornado Warning. There is no Tornado Warning for landover but we do have severe thunderstorms warning. You can take that label off there because scare anybody. Well drop that. There you go. But we do have that line coming through. The big threat is going to be the strong, straightline winds. These could definitely have some potential to gust at 60. Am i going too low with that . I think the concern which it always is in Severe Thunderstorm Warning, 60 Miles Per Hour. Just to the north of dc, contains baltimore city, Frederick County, Hartford County and Montgomery County and includes part of fairfax and Loudoun County that will stay in effect until 6 45. And thats just crossing 270 right now so you know thats a headache. You all mentioned damage. We are getting damage reports. A Trained Spotter in chantilly has reported a tree down from gusts and thunderstorms. And then in Fairfax Fairfax county, virginia, we have reports up to nickel sized hail as of 5 41. We are getting hail and trees down and that will be continuing story as we head through the evening. Its always my biggest concern. The trees coming down, that is something you want to be aware of. And caitlin i love this product. I think this is super important. This shows us, it picks up the storm wip the freezing level to see if theres hail. Its pretty accurate and it shows where you see these brighter blues, this would be just around the dale city areas and weve seen these signatures over this part of virginia, that would indicate that the storm passing has some pretty sizeable hail imbedded with it. Hail is a concern too. It looks like smaller hail but still the chance of it as you head up to places like reston and just west of 270. Thats our hail cast that we have. We have our little wind cast too. Storm which usually indicates changing winds with height. But it also picks up on the actual winds flowing out of the storm when it first arrives. The bowing segment of this storm will show you these winds that even though they might mot be rotating, they can gust to such high levels over 60 Miles Per Hour. Were seeing the highest and the northern plank of the storm, this is up along Tysons Corner right there. Also down by wood brivenlg, virginia. This helps us see that its hail and its wind thats all a factor in the storm right now. By the way, the picture youre seeing on the right side, that is our oxon hill camera seeing the lightning coming into your area. Its constant. We also know that Marina Marraco has been on th ready to intercept some of these storms. Thats not a good job but you always do it so well. What is the latest and where are you right now . Reporter we are just out here in dumfries. Were back out here on route 1. This is the quintessential thunderstorm. Its like 5 00 p. M. August day in miami. It is coming down very hard. Nonstop. Heavy traffic out here as usual because it is of course peak rush hour. But for the most part people are heeding the warning and trying to get off the road if they can. But right now we have seen the temperature drop a couple of degrees where we are, not significantly in this area. No hail, but a lot of lightning. How is the wind for you right now . The rain is heavy. It is coming down nonstop. Triangle and we hit dumfries, wree hit a big and it is nonstop. The sky ahead of us is probably the darkest weve seen all afternoon. Of course the sun has probably set at this point or it is about to. But it is very dark out here and the rain seems heavier than it is. But it is fairly heavy and we have our windshield wipers going full blast. Thats more storm than sunset. How is the wind where you are right now . Reporter the wind, i wish we could show you. I dont know if we can turn over to these flags again. It is fairly windy. Its fairly windy, i cant really grasp it. Can you see the flag there . Oh, yes. You can tell the direction of the wind with that as wem. The rain is hitting us side ways completely. It is strong. Strong Forward Motion with these storms and thats been a big concern as it moves into our area. And caitlin, our Severe Thunderstorm Warning that has just gone into effect, thats going until i hear 6 15 . 6 45. So meek youre looking at some of the hail reports we continue to have some small hail. If theyre getting a little bit of hail moving into it looks like southern Fairfax County as well. It does look like the worst of it right around the lor ton area. And actually there was another report of hail that just came n caitlin do you see that. That matches up nicely with what were and i understand, our tower cam is also showing the lightning moving into northwest washington right now. Everybody should be hunkered down and i know youre interested to know when is this going to be out of here. Its almost nonstop as we look towards northwest at the light show that were seeing as these storms come on through. No active tornadoes at the moment in ouria. We have a Severe Thunderstorm Warning for parts of our region. That is going to include Prince Georges County and several other areas. Severe thunderstorm warning is for howard. So we know that a lot of those have gone into repeat performance with a second one coming. This is so everybody is seeing. Its blasting through dc and you can see on the other side of your screen as we watch this pushing across the district. Its our turn now to experience this storm. And all the area airports, by the way, responding to the Severe Weather moving through. We just got Media Releases out at dulles airport. Theyve got the warning in effect for any flights that are arriving. They have plenty of delays, make sure you check ahead there. Reagan is the same thing. You can anticipate some delays. It looks like the average is an hour and 4 minutes for arriving flights to be delayed out of reagan. So if you are anticipating anyone coming in from reagan, delays of up to an hour there. They are experiencing both arrival and departure delays. Bwi also seeing delays too. We also got a new hail report in from falls church, virginia. So Fairfax County and that hail was the size of the National Weather service has cancelled the Severe Thunderstorm Warning for fairfax and loudoun. We have a new warning or it is continuing until 6 45 so a little update there. And with the wind, with the rain, with the hail, we are starting to get reports of Power Outages already as of 5 45. P emplet pco reports 460 without power. Dominion in northern virginia, over a thousand without power already. Bge over 2,500. Look at that heavy rain coming down. Is that the h street shot . Thats powering. And also, we havent really hit on that, but flash flooding is a concern with these storms. Even though theyre quick moving, they have an incredible amount of rain with them and if weve got any flash flood warnings well pass them along to you. And thats another reason you want to be careful. Look at that wind by the way blowing that rain out there too. Thats right in front of our building. Right in northwest. I cannot believe we are doing this in february. We thought this was going to be a snowstorm last week. If we zoom in on washington, it looks like that heavy rain band is over us here in northwest dc. Look at those reds there just on the western side of the district too. You guys are seeing probably the heaviest of the rain and if there is any hail i would guess that it would be right there. 66, like when you head into the district along k street, that area there. The worst of it is in the metro half of the region. However it is working its way eastward. We had a lot of viewers on our Facebook Page asking about Southern Maryland. Activity starting to kick up as we head down county. Lightning and thunderstorm activity, but the worst of it still off to your west. And progressing eastward. You too will get into the some of the heavier rain and thund irand lightning. I do want to remind you there is a Severe Thunderstorm Warning that is in effect does contain the district and i believe that is in effect until 6 15. So about 15, 20 more minutes left on this warning here before conditions should begin to improve for us. And we are, again, another mention of the back edge of this particular system, already coming through the western half of Loudoun County is clearing out, northern Prince William county, front royal, the 81 corridor is clear. These are fastmoving storms and conditions will rapidly improve once we get these lines. Theres a report of a wind gust of 64 this has been reported two miles north of german town in Montgomery County. 64, that storm means business and that will definitely do some damage. And it makes sense that we are getting these Power Outages being reported. That is most often the case when you have very gusty winds that just rip through these neighborhood. So i suspect well also have some damage reports coming in too just because of the nature of the wind gusts associated with this squall lines. Up in Montgomery County, probably the whole area going to see some substantial wind gusts as this moves through. Want to hear Something Weird . It is 65 degrees right now in dc. But it is 49 in culpeper. Mannasas is 46 degrees, frederick is 46. We havent had that kind of Severe Weather out there because you didnt get into the warm air. The contrast is what fed the storm and its right up 95. Its right now in fredricksburg. And everyone here shortly, if youre in the district, any of the dmv will see the cooler temperatures once this blows through. But we still are staying with you as this storm moves through. Its a whole squall line of severe thunderstorms. Basically the whole area under the severe warning. It is dangerous to be outside on the roads right now. So we urge everyone to wait for these storms to pass. Its probably only going to be another half hour or so. Weve seen it already clear western sections of our area. You can pretty clearly see on the radar here, the bow echo, how it bows out forward and were right at the peak here at washington. We could be looking at some of the worst of the winds out along this line. We do not want to forget our viewers to the north. Howard county, Frederick County, although the city of frederick youre on the back edge of this thing. Within conditions will be improving enough. Keep it right here and were going to keep you posted. Very good. All right. Well you are now live at 6 00 on fox 5 local news at 6 00. Here we are. Youve heard our voices for the last hour. Caitlin roth, mike thomas and im sue palka. Obviously were continuing to follow this situation. Its been a dangerous afternoon for a lot of people who have been on the road as these massive strong storms with scary Tornado Warnings have been moving on through. But lets give everybody the latest right now and that is we continue to track severe storms but no Tornado Warnings at the moment. Were under a tornado watch until 7 00. Weve had some Power Outages. Wouldnt be shocked if we got another report or two of a funnel cloud. We have a front draped across our region. Theres a lot of winds tossing and turning in the atmosphere. Wouldnt be shocked to see some
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