Red Flag Warning Issued for Virginia and West Virginia Regions
This alert is no longer in effect.
NOAA issued it on April 16, 2026, 4 months ago. Warnings of this kind stay in effect for hours to a few days, so this page is a historical record of what was issued, not a current warning. For conditions where you are right now, check weather.gov (US), weather.gc.ca (Canada), the Met Office (UK), or the Bureau of Meteorology (Australia).
Areazine synthesizes this NWS weather alert directly from NOAA's official public data feed. See our methodology for full source attribution and refresh cadence.
A Red Flag Warning is in effect until 7:00 PM EDT on April 16, 2026, for parts of Virginia and West Virginia due to critical fire weather conditions from hot, dry, and windy weather.
Read this weather record in 30 seconds
- Record type
- Red Flag Warning
- Affected area
- Shenandoah Valley and surrounding regions in Virginia and West Virginia
- Issued
- April 16, 2026
- Issuing authority
- NOAA
Fire-weather notices describe conditions that can support rapid fire spread; they do not report that a fire is present. Check local emergency sources for any active incident.
Record status: historical. It was issued 4 months ago; use the issuing agency's live warning service for current conditions in Shenandoah Valley and surrounding regions in Virginia and West Virginia.
Red Flag Warning Alert
Alert Details
A Red Flag Warning has been issued by the National Weather Service in Baltimore MD/Washington. It is effective from 9:43 AM EDT until 7:00 PM EDT on April 16, 2026.
Affected Areas
The warning affects the following areas: Augusta; Rockingham; Shenandoah; Frederick; Page; Warren; Clarke; Eastern Highland; Northern Virginia Blue Ridge; Central Virginia Blue Ridge; Hampshire; Morgan; Berkeley; Jefferson; Hardy; Eastern Grant; Eastern Mineral; and Eastern Pendleton.
What You Should Do
Residents should prepare for critical fire weather conditions. Outdoor burning is not recommended, as any fire that develops could spread quickly due to the combination of strong winds, low relative humidity, and warm temperatures.
Expected Conditions
Conditions include southwest winds of 10 to 15 mph with frequent gusts up to 25 mph, relative humidity as low as 20 percent, and fuel moisture of 7 to 8 percent.
Timeline
The alert is effective from 9:43 AM EDT on April 16, 2026, with onset at 11:00 AM EDT, and ends at 7:00 PM EDT on the same day.
Original source: NOAA Official Notice ↗
Related Weather Alerts
All Weather Alerts →Nationwide notices with similar length or severity timing 8
Two Areazine-derived peer sets for this NWS weather alert: nearest notices by body length and by same severity near the same agency date. Peers come from other categories so they are not the same-feed Related list above.
Similar body length
Nearest notices by article body length (1,094 characters here).
Similar severity timing
Same severity (high) notices issued closest in time to April 16, 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about this NWS weather alert.