A Severe Thunderstorm Watch and a Tornado Watch have been issued for Arlington, Falls Church and much of the D.C. area.
The tornado watch was issued around 3 p.m., about a half hour after the storm watch. Both watches are in effect until 10 p.m.
A Severe Thunderstorm Watch and Flood Watch have been issued for Arlington, Falls Church and much of the D.C. area.
The storm watch was issued just before 4:45 p.m. and is set to remain in effect until 11 p.m. The National Weather Service says hail, wind gusts up to 65 mph, and “a couple tornadoes” are all possible with a line of storms approaching from the west.
Update at 6:35 p.m. — A possible lightning strike caused a minor house fire on the 400 block of N. Bryan Street in Lyon Park, according to scanner traffic.
Update at 6 p.m. — Throughout Arlington nearly 2,500 homes and businesses are without power, according to Dominion’s website. In addition to the outage along Wilson Blvd, there are outages reported in the Arlington Mill and Forest Glen neighborhoods, as well as the Cherrydale, Maywood, Woodmont, Riverwood, and Dover Crystal neighborhoods.
A Severe Thunderstorm Watch has been issued for Arlington and much of the D.C. area.
Storms are expected later today and forecasters say they could pack quarter-sized hail, 65 mph wind gusts and frequent lightning. The watch is in effect until 9 p.m.
A line of strong storms with gusty winds and frequent lightning will soon be arriving in Arlington.
The storms have prompted a Special Weather Statement from the National Weather Service, for wind gusts in excess of 40 mph.
Update at 4:30 p.m. — A Tornado Watch was also just issued for Arlington and much of the area. From the National Weather Service:
A tornado watch has been issued for parts of Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia until 10 PM EDT pic.twitter.com/tKjdMxh3X2
If it feels like the weather forecast has been letting you down lately, a growing number of meteorologists say you may not be imagining it.
They point to a quieter problem playing out well above our heads: the National Weather Service has been launching fewer weather balloons, and the resulting gaps in data may be making forecasts less reliable — especially for severe weather.
Weather balloons carry instruments called radiosondes that measure temperature, humidity, pressure and wind as they rise through the atmosphere. That information is among the most valuable data forecasters have. A recent NASA analysis found balloon readings did more to reduce errors in 24-hour forecasts than any single satellite instrument or aircraft data across the Northern Hemisphere.
The Weather Service began scaling back launches in March 2025, citing staffing shortages, and more than 25 sites are now routinely pushing their morning launches to midday, according to Capital Weather. The agency has lost roughly 600 employees to layoffs and buyouts over the past year, CBS News reported.
Forecasters say the missing morning data is most worrisome on days when severe storms are possible.
Meteorologists and an emergency manager told Politico that absent balloon data likely contributed to a poorly predicted tornado outbreak near Kansas City in April. Many Great Plains offices delayed morning launches to noon that day, NBC News reported, too late for the models that run shortly after 7 a.m. — and a tornado watch went up only about 30 minutes before the first twister.
Arlington-based meteorologist Matthew Cappucci, who recently broke down the issue on Fox 5, didn’t mince words on X:
Have weather forecasts seemed less accurate lately? There's a major contributing factor: nearly half the morning weather balloons in the Lower 48 are "missing."
This is an ongoing crisis that is degrading critical severe weather forecasts that we all rely on. It's having real,… pic.twitter.com/xMajo4MzUs
— Matthew Cappucci (@MatthewCappucci) June 27, 2026
How much any of this affects forecasts here is up for debate. Because weather generally moves west to east, some meteorologists argue a missed launch out West can ripple downstream and dent forecasts on the East Coast. Others counter that balloons are a small slice of the data feeding modern models, and that the biggest effects are likely felt closer to the Plains.
The Weather Service, for its part, disputes that forecasts have suffered. A spokesperson told Capital Weather the agency has seen “no evidence of degradation” in its models, pointing to satellites, aircraft and other sensors that help fill the gaps.
Arlington readers have had reason to keep an eye on the forecast lately, from a snowy winter to tornado watches this spring and the threat of severe storms earlier this week. Whether local forecasts have actually slipped is hard to prove — but some seem to have a gut feeling one way or the other.
So today we’re asking: have you noticed weather forecasts getting less accurate recently?
A Severe Thunderstorm Watch has been issued for Arlington and the entire D.C. area.
Forecasters say severe storms with hail and damaging winds, along with some tornados, are possible later today. The watch is in effect until 10 p.m.
It’s going to be stormy, sweltering Fourth of July in Arlington and the D.C. area.
Amid an ongoing heat wave, strong storms are expected to form later today, potentially packing hail and damaging wind gusts up to 75 mph. A Severe Thunderstorm Watch was just issued and will be in effect until 10 p.m.
Update at 6:50 p.m. — Nearly 1,000 Dominion customers are without power in Arlington, according to the utility company’s website. Most of the outages are in the county’s far northern neighborhoods along the border with McLean, which is experiencing widespread outages after the storms.
Update at 6:15 p.m. — A second line of storms is arriving and has prompted a second Severe Thunderstorm Warning, below, which is in effect until 7 p.m.
The entire D.C. area, including Arlington and Falls Church, is under a Severe Thunderstorm Watch tonight (Monday).
The watch is in effect until 9 p.m.
A pair of good Samaritans rescued a kayaker knocked into the Potomac River without a life vest during a sudden thunderstorm last week.
The kayaker, an older man who has been paddling the Potomac for the last 25 years, had been caught off guard by heavy winds and rain on June 11. Forced out of his kayak by the waves, he was left stranded in the river and unsuccessfully tried to catch the attention of several other vessels before boaters Orlando Karpf and Madison Cutlip heard his cries for help.
