Rainfall totals that created Thursday's flash flooding in D.C. and some of its suburbs

Rain Coming to Drought-Stricken Southern U.S.

A storm tracking across the Southern U.S. will bring heavy to excessive rainfall over portions of west-central Texas into tonight then from central Texas through the central Gulf Coast on Friday. The Southeast U.S. will see heavier rain Saturday. While much of this rainfall will be beneficial to the drought, excessive rainfall may bring areas of flash and urban flooding. Read More >

Thursday afternoon September 10th 2020

Early on Thursday afternoon, showers and thunderstorms arose along a weak atmospheric boundary oriented north to south across the Washington area. The storms that formed were fed by tropical moisture to our southeast which allowed for heavy rainfall rates. In addition, weak winds in the atmosphere kept the storms moving slowly. That combination of heavy rain and slow movement allowed for 2-5" of rain to fall in a relatively narrow corridor across parts of the Washington metro area. Most of that rain fell within 2 hours.

The heavy rains produced flash flooding of numerous roads and streams and first responders conducted several water rescues. The hardest hit areas were: the District of Columbia, Arlington and Alexandria Virginia, and the Maryland suburbs in Prince Georges and Montgomery Counties.